he resemblance
of Prince's Theatre to a lunatic asylum was more superficial than real.
Also, the tone of the newspapers in referring to the imminent production
convinced even John Pilgrim that Henry was perhaps not quite an ordinary
author. John Pilgrim cancelled a proof of a poster which he had already
passed, and ordered a double-crown, thus:

LOVE IN BABYLON.

A PLAY IN ONE ACT, FOUNDED ON

HENRY SHAKSPERE KNIGHT'S

FAMOUS NOVEL.

BY

HENRY SHAKSPERE KNIGHT AND ALFRED DOXEY.

ENID ANSTRUTHER--MISS JANE MAP.

Geraldine met Jane, and asked her to tea at the flat. And Geraldine
hired a brougham at thirty pounds a month. From that day Henry's
reception at the theatre was all that he could have desired, and more
than any mere author had the right to expect. At the final rehearsals,
in the absence of John Pilgrim, his word was law. It was whispered in
the green-room that he earned ten thousand a year by writing things
called novels. 'Well, dear old pal,' said one old actor to another old
actor, 'it takes all sorts to make a world. But ten thousand! Johnny
himself don't make more than that, though he spends more.'

The mischief was that Henry's digestion, what with the irregular hours
and the irregular drinks, went all to pieces.

'You don't _look_ nervous, Harry,' said Geraldine when he came into the
drawing-room before dinner on the evening of the production.

'Nervous?' said Henry. 'Of course I'm not.'

'Then, why have you forgotten to brush your hair, dearest?' she asked.

He glanced in a mirror. Yes, he had certainly forgotten to brush his
hair.

'Sheer coincidence,' he said, and ate a hearty meal.

Geraldine drove to the theatre. She was to meet there Mrs. Knight and
Aunt Annie, in whose breasts pride and curiosity had won a tardy victory
over the habits of a lifetime; they had a stage-box. Henry remarked that
it was a warm night and that he preferred to walk; he would see them
afterwards.

No one could have been more surprised than Henry, when he arrived at
Prince's Theatre, to discover that he was incapable of entering that
edifice. He honestly and physically tried to go in by the stage-door,
but he could not, and, instead of turning within, he kept a straight
course along the footpath. It was as though an invisible barrier h