mpletely out of
sight.

Nellie's wits were returning. She was obliged to do some rapid and
clever thinking. Fairfax was watching her with a sardonic smile on his
lips. Ripton, the manager, peered over his shoulder and winked
violently.

"Oh, Harvey dear," she cried, plaintively, "how disappointed I am. I
have had strict orders from the doctor to go straight home to bed
after every performance. I really can't go with you and Mr. Butler
to-night. I wish you had telephoned or something. I could have told
you."

Harvey looked distressed. "What does the doctor say it is?"

[Illustration: Copyright, 1911, by Dodd, Mead & Company
Fairfax was sitting on a trunk, a satisfied smile on his lips]

"My heart," she said, solemnly.

"Don't you think you could go out for a--just a sandwich and a bottle
of beer?" he pleaded, feeling that he had wantonly betrayed his
friendly neighbour.

"Couldn't think of it," she said. "The nurse will be here at eleven.
I'll just have to go home. He insists on absolute quiet for me and I'm
on a dreadful diet." A bright thought struck her. "Do you know, I have
to keep my door locked so as not to be startled by----"

The sharp, insistent voice of the callboy broke in on her flow of
excuses.

"There! I'll have to go on in a second. The curtain's going up.
Good-night, gentlemen. Good-night, Harvey dear. Give me a kiss."

She pecked at his cheek with her carmine lips.

"Just half an hour at some quiet little restaurant," he was saying
when she fled past him toward the stage.

"Sorry, dear," she called, then stopped to speak to Mr. Butler.
"Thank you so much, Mr. Butler. Won't you repeat the invitation some
time later on? So good of you to bring Harvey in. Bring Mrs. Butler in
some night, and if I'm better we will have a jolly little spree, just
the four of us. Will you do it?"

She beamed on him. Butler bowed very low and said:--

"It will give me great pleasure, Miss Duluth."

"Good-night, then."

"Good-night."

When she returned to her dressing-room later on, she found Fairfax
there, sitting on a trunk, a satisfied smile on his lips. She left the
door open.

Mr. Ripton conducted the two men across to the stage door, leading
them through the narrow space back of the big drop. Chorus girls threw
kisses at Harvey; they all knew him. He winked blandly at Butler, who
was staring straight before him.

"A great life, eh?" said Harvey, meaning that which surrounded them.
They were in t