rose also, with obvious regret, and they left together.

"Don't forget," he called back from the door; "we read our parts
to-morrow, and rehearsals begin on Thursday."

"I have it all down," Berenice answered. "I will do my best to be
ready for Thursday."

Berenice remained standing, looking thoughtfully after the little
brougham, which was being driven down Piccadilly.

Matravers came back to her, and laid his hand gently upon her arm.

"You must not think of going yet," he said. "I want you to stay and
have tea with me."

"I should like to," she answered. "I seem to have so much to say to
you."

He piled her chair with cushions and drew it back into the shade. Then
he lit a cigarette, and sat down by her side.

"I suppose you must think that I am very ungrateful," she said. "I
have scarcely said 'thank you' yet, have I?"

"You will please me best by never saying it," he answered. "I only
hope that it will be a step you will never regret."

"How could I?"

He looked at her steadily, a certain grave concentration of
thought manifest in his dark eyes. Berenice was looking her best
that afternoon. She was certainly a very beautiful and a very
distinguished-looking woman. Her eyes met his frankly; her lips
were curved in a faintly tender smile.

"Well, I hardly know," he said. "You are going to be a popular
actress. Henceforth the stage will have claims upon you! It will
become your career."

"You have plenty of confidence."

"I have absolute confidence in you," he declared, "and Fergusson
is equally confident about the play; chance has given you this
opportunity--the result is beyond question! Yet I confess that I have
a presentiment. If the manuscript of 'The Heart of the People' were
in my hands at this moment, I think that I would tear it into little
pieces, and watch them flutter down on to the pavement there."

"I do not understand you," she said softly. "You say that you have no
doubt----"

"It is because I have no doubt--it is because I know that it will make
you a popular and a famous actress. You will gain this. I wonder what
you will lose."

She moved restlessly on her chair.

"Why should I lose anything?"

"It is only a presentiment," he reminded her. "I pray that you may not
lose anything. Yet you are coming under a very fascinating influence.
It is your personality I am afraid of. You are going to belong
definitely to a profession which is at once the most catholic and the
most nar