ll--the merry song of
mad Ophelia.

"Mr. Potter!" the playwright began, "I--"

Potter turned without a word and disappeared into the room whence he
came.

"Mr. Potter!" Canby started to follow. "Mr. Pot--"

"Sh!" whispered Tinker.

Potter appeared again upon the threshold In one hand he held a large
goblet; in the other a bottle of Bourbon whiskey, just opened. With
solemn tread he approached a delicate table, set the goblet upon it, and
lifted the bottle high above.

"I am in no condition to talk to anybody," he said hoarsely. "I am about
to take my first drink of spirits in five years."

And he tilted the bottle. The liquor clucked and guggled, plashed into
the goblet, and splashed upon the table; but when he set the bottle down
the glass was full to its capacious brim, and looked, upon the little
"Louis Sixteenth" table, like a sot at the Trianon. Potter stepped back
and pointed to it majestically.

"That," he said, "is the size of the drink I am about to take!"

"Mr. Potter," said Canby hotly, "will you tell me what's the matter with
my play? Haven't I made every change you suggested? Haven't--"

Potter tossed his arms above his head and flung himself full length upon
the chaise lounge.

"STOP it!" he shouted. "I won't be pestered. I won't! Nothing's the
matter with your play!"

"Then what--"

Potter swung himself round to a sitting position and hammered with his
open palm upon his knee for emphasis: "Nothing's the matter with it, I
tell you! I simply won't play it!"

"Why not?"

"I simply won't play it! I don't like it!"

The playwright dropped into a chair, open-mouthed. "Will you tell me why
you ever accepted it?"

"I don't like any play! I hate 'em all! I'm through with 'em all! I'm
through with the whole business! 'Show-business!' Faugh!"

Old Tinker regarded him thoughtfully, then inquired: "Gone back on it?"

"I tell you I'm going to buy a farm!" He sprang up, went to the mantel
and struck it a startling blow with his fist, which appeared to calm
him somewhat--for a moment. "I've been thinking of it for a long time. I
ought never to have been in this business at all, and I'm going to
live in the country. Oh, I'm in my right mind!" He paused to glare
indignantly in response to old Tinker's steady gaze. "Of course you
think 'something's happened' to upset me. Well, nothing has. Nothing
of the slightest consequence has occurred since I saw you at rehearsal.
Can't a man be allowed to thi