leo now found the
requisite money, she would be hopelessly bankrupt.

"And so she's confident of finding it," observed Helen.

"I am quite in the dark," said Morgan.

"Perhaps she intends opening the theatre again."

"Heaven forbid!"

"You don't expect she'd take any notice of the prohibition! Now
Morgan, dear, I think you've treated her handsomely and she has cause
to be grateful to you. You offered her the incense of a profound faith
in her genius and a profound admiration of her person. Not content
with that, she needs must have the same incense--compounded of the
same two essentials, observe you--from the world at large. For this
purpose you made her a nice little money present and enabled her to
realise her dreams of a theatre. You gave her the greatest joy of her
life. In return--what has she given you? A few kisses, a pretence of
love, and a heavy burden on your poor head! If the madcap hadn't tied
you to her, the worst criticism to be made would have been that you
could have got the kisses and the rest very much cheaper. But as it
is--well, I think you'd better say good-bye to her."

Morgan shook his head. "Impossible!" he said.

"She wouldn't grieve very much," insisted Helen. "She certainly
couldn't go on doing anything for long except thinking of herself. You
may be sure that once she realises your present estimate of her, she
will not wish to keep you longer. She is not wicked--as I am, you
know--she is simply an exaggerated incarnation of the most
unsatisfactory sides of feminine nature. All women have something of
her in them, but the less of her they have the more charming you'll
find them. In the sham, tawdry world of the footlights she feels
something akin to her whole being. It calls to such a woman almost
from her very cradle, and fly to it she must. It is true that, in her
case, this stage-infatuation was a real misfortune, for in some other
walk she might have made a furore. That nude scene, in fact, was
symbolic of the temperament, and, had she taken to writing, would have
come out as an autobiographic novel. There are women who cannot make
themselves interesting to men without the confidence-trick, who cannot
even talk to a man for the first time without laying bare their whole
souls. Should a woman you scarcely know try the trick on you--shun
her. She also is afflicted with the same disease as your Cleo, with
the same rage for displaying her interesting self; though it may find
a more re