to leave a world in which he was _out of place_, and through no fault of
his own--that was the hard part of it. Hard part! Nonsense! What does Fate
know of our little rights and wrongs--or care? Her intentions are
inscrutable; she watches us come and go, and gives no sign. Prayers are
vain. The good man is punished, and the wicked is sent on his way
rejoicing.

In such mournful thought, his clothes stained and torn, with all the traces
of a week's toil in the docks upon them, Hubert made his way round St.
Paul's and across Holborn. As he was about to cross into Oxford Street, he
heard some one accost him,--

'Oh, Mr. Price, is that you?' It was Rose. 'Where have you been all this
time?'

She seemed so strange, so small, and so much alone in the great
thoroughfare, that Hubert forgot all his own troubles in a sudden interest
in this little mite. 'Where have you been hiding yourself?... It is lucky I
met you. Don't you know that Ford has decided to revive _Divorce_?'

'You don't mean it!'

'Yes; Ford said that the last acts of _The Gipsy_ were not satisfactorily
worked out, and as there was something wrong with that Hamilton Brown's
piece, he has decided to revive _Divorce_. He says it never was properly
played ... he thinks he'll make a hit in the husband's part, and I daresay
he will. But I have been unfortunate again; I wanted the part of the
adventuress. I really could play it. I don't look it, I know ... I have no
weight, but I could play it for all that. The public mightn't see me in it
at first, but in five minutes they would.'

'And what part has he cast you for--the young girl?'

'Of course; there's no other part. He says I look it; but what's the good
of looking it when you don't feel it? If he had cast me for Mrs.
Barrington, I should have had just the five minutes in the second act that
I have been waiting for so long, and I should have just wiped Miss Osborne
out, acted her off the stage.... I know I should; you needn't believe it if
don't like, but I know I should.'

Hubert wondered how any one could feel so sure of herself, and then he
said, 'Yes, I think you could do just what you say.... How do you think
Miss Osborne will play the part?'

'She'll be correct enough; she'll miss nothing, and yet somehow she'll miss
the whole thing. But you must go at once to Ford. He was saying only this
morning that if you didn't turn up soon, he'd have to give up the idea.'

'I can't go and see him to-night.