ors. After the first evening or two
they would certainly have to turn away business.

The near approach of the moment when the realisation of his panoramic
visions was at last to begin, freshened again in Morgan all his sense
of the romance of the situation. There had been times in the last few
days when he had suffered from despondency. There were sides to
theatrical life that were little to his taste. He had long since
known, for instance, that the stage manager was addicted to obscene
talk; and when, one day, just as in the middle of a rehearsal he was
about to step from the wings on to the stage, he was arrested by a
torrent of vileness that came from that same individual, he was not
very much surprised at the mere fact. But he was vexed and disgusted
that the fellow should not have restrained himself in the presence of
Cleo. What was worse, Cleo herself seemed to be perfectly unaware of
anything exceptionable, for she made not the least protest; from which
Morgan gathered that the sort of thing must be quite usual and that,
had he not shunned the rehearsals so persistently, he would have known
it before. Thus, there were moments when he felt utterly alone in this
strange life, when he longed for real, human sympathy. He yearned for
some other being who was not Cleo, to whom to turn, to whom to pour
out the human emotion that was in him; some being who belonged to the
life from which he had cut himself off, and to which he looked back
almost as from another world. Yet these were only momentary longings
that mastered him. His whole interest, his whole imagination, were
bound up with his present life; and the fascination exerted over him
by Cleo and the wonderful future he believed was to be hers sufficed
to attach him enthusiastically to her career.

Thus, as the rising of the curtain approached, so did the excitement
in him overcome every other emotion; so did he become absolutely a
creature of this region into which he had plunged, breathing its air
with avidity and entranced by the prospect.

"I've a surprise in store for you, dear," Cleo confided to him that
day at lunch. "I've arranged a special scene at the beginning of the
second act, in which I alone appear. No one has any suspicion of it,
but I tell you, dear, the effect will be wonderful. Coming after I
shall have charmed everybody with my acting in the first act, it will
carry the audience off its feet with enthusiasm."

CHAPTER IV.

Morgan,