, and it shall not happen--" the star was
beginning to say in an apologetic tone, which bent under the cold edge
of the assault, as Mr. Vandeford had hoped it would, when Mr. Rooney cut
it off with a curt command to pale Fido.

"Give out the Hawtry part."

Miss Hawtry accepted the little blue booklet handed her by Fido, and
also Mr. Vandeford's chair, placed carefully in the center of the stage
for her. The first brush between Mr. Rooney and Miss Hawtry had been
pulled off and he had won, much to Mr. Vandeford's delight. For "Miss
Cut-up" he had had to hire, pay for, and fire, three successive
stage-managers, and she had managed all three. Mr. Rooney's boast was
that no star had ever managed him and that he had successfully staged
every play he had undertaken; hence a spectacular salary. Also he felt
that his reputation was at stake in the Hawtry duel, and he was
determined to back his own method.

"Scene first, act first; Betty Carrington is discovered on stage. Go to
it, Betty!" he commanded as Fido took a seat at the end of the table,
opened a copy of the first act, and sat ready for annotations.

"How beautiful the morning is and--" the glowering Miss Blanche Grayson
was beginning to read from her cerulean booklet, when an interruption
occurred.

Miss Adair and Mr. Farraday entered from the stage door.

Mr. Vandeford looked at Mr. Rooney, and muttered under his breath:
"Angel and author, Bill. Easy!"

"Shoot," answered Mr. Rooney, in a mild undertone, though he glared at
the company as though in a cold rage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to Miss Adair, the author of
our play. You have all of you met Mr. Farraday. Mr. Rooney, our
stage-director, Miss Adair and Mr. Farraday." Mr. Vandeford made the
introductions as rapidly as possible and in a voice of such coolness
that Miss Adair looked at him in astonishment and then at the assembled
company with great timidity. With special trepidation did she regard Mr.
Rooney, who had bobbed his scrubby, black-mopped head at her with no
expression at all in his little black eyes, while he refused to see Mr.
Farraday's offered hand.

"Have seats in the left stage-box," he directed them in the same tone of
voice with which he had quelled Miss Hawtry. "Now, get going there,
Betty Carrington, and open again."

Mr. Vandeford led Miss Adair and Mr. Farraday out into the wings in a
roundabout path to the left stage-box, and paused with them out of sight
of M