rs were more interested,
they said, in getting someone who fitted the role of Eric Everard than
in a big name--especially since the female star preferred to have her
luster undimmed by competition.

Rehearsals took up so much of his time that he saw very little of Ivo
for the next five weeks--but by then Ivo didn't need him any more.
Actually, they were no longer teacher and pupil now but companions,
drawn together by the fact that they both belonged to different worlds
from the one in which they were living. Insofar as he could like anyone
who existed outside of his imagination, Paul had grown rather fond of
Ivo. And he rather thought Ivo liked him, too--but, because he couldn't
ever be quite sure of ordinary people's reactions toward him, how could
he be sure of an outworlder's?

Ivo came around to rehearsals sometimes, but naturally it would be
boring for him, since he wasn't in the profession, and, after a while,
he didn't come around very often. At first, Paul felt a twinge of guilt;
then he remembered that he need not worry. Ivo had his own work.

* * * * *

The whole _Holiday Tree_ troupe went out of town for the tryouts, and
Paul didn't see Ivo at all for six weeks. Busy, happy weeks they were,
for the play was a smash hit from the start. It played to packed houses
in New Haven and Boston, and the box office in New York was sold out for
months in advance before they even opened.

"Must be kinda fun--acting," Ivo told Paul the morning after the New
York opening, as Paul weltered contentedly on his bed--he had the best
room in the house now--amid a pile of rave notices. At long last, he had
arrived. Everybody loved him. He was a success.

And now that he had read the reviews and they were all favorable, he
could pay attention to the strange things that had happened to his
friend. Raising himself up on an elbow, Paul cried, "Ivo, you're
_mumbling_! After all I taught you about articulation!"

"I got t'hanging 'round with this here buncha actors while y'were gone,"
Ivo said. "They say mumbling's the comin' thing. 'Sides, y'kept yapping
that I declaimed, so--"

"But you don't have to go to the opposite extreme and--_Ivo_!"
Incredulously, Paul took in the full details of the other's appearance.
"What happened to your Brooks Brothers' suits?"

"Hung 'em inna closet," Ivo replied, looking abashed. "I did wear one
las' night, though," he went on defensively. "Wooden come dressed l