derstand me if I am to remain in the theatre. If a woman reveals
herself to a man, then she is responsible. She has nothing to say
if--I don't think you understand.'

'No.' And indeed she might have been talking Greek to him. The
insulted woman he knew, the virtuous woman he knew, the fraudulent
coquette he knew, the extravagant self-esteem of women he knew, but
never before had he met a woman who was simple and sincere, who could
brush aside all save essentials and talk to him as a man might have
done, with detachment from the thing that had happened.

'If you think I'm a blackguard, why don't you say so? Why don't you
hit me?'

'I don't think you are anything of the kind. I think you have been
spoiled and that everything has been too easy for you.... I'm hurt
because I thought you wanted Charles and me for the theatre and not for
yourself.'

'_L'etat c'est moi_,' smiled Sir Henry. 'I am the theatre.... All the
immense machinery is my creation. My brain here is the power that
keeps it going. If I were to die to-morrow there would be four walls
and Mr Gillies.... Do you think he could do anything with it? Could
Charles Mann? Could you?'

'Yes,' said Clara, and he laughed. He had never been in such
entrancing company. If she did not want his love-making--well and
good. At least she gave him the benefit of her frankness and he needed
no pose with her. He was glad she was going to be a sensible girl....
She might alter her mind and every day only made her more adorable.

'Sit down and have some chocolates.' He spoke to her as though she
were a child and like a child she obeyed him, for she was alarmed that
he should exert his capricious prerogative and throw over _The Tempest_
at the last moment.

'What would you do with the theatre?'

'I should dismiss Mr Gillies.'

'An excellent man of business.'

'For stocks and shares or boots, but not for art.'

'He's a steadying influence.'

'Art is steady enough, if it is art.'

'My _dear_ child!'

'If you don't know that then you are not an artist.'

'Oh! Would you call Charles Mann steady?'

'I should think of the play first and last.'

'There's no one to write them.'

'I should scour the country for imaginative people and make them think
in terms of the theatre. Besides, there are people!'

'Oh!'

'Yes. There are people who love the drama so much that they can't go
near the theatre.'

He roared with laughter, and to convince him