re's any danger of his laying hold of me, and getting the
play away before Godolphin has a chance of refusing it, I'll go masked.
I'm tired of thinking about it. What sort of lunch did you have?"

"I had the best time in the world. You ought to have come with me,
Brice. I shall make you, the next one. Oh, and guess who was there! Mr.
Ray!"

"_Our_ Mr. Ray?" Maxwell breathlessly demanded.

"There is no other, and he's the sweetest little dear in the world. He
isn't so big as you are, even, and he's such a merry spirit; he hasn't
the bulk your gloom gives you. I want you to be like him, Brice. I don't
see why you shouldn't go into society, too."

"If I'd gone into society to-day, I should have missed seeing Grayson,
and shouldn't have known Godolphin was in town."

"Well, that is true, of course. But if you get your play into
Godolphin's hands, you'll have to show yourself a little, so that nice
people will be interested in it. You ought to have heard Mr. Ray
celebrate it. He piped up before the whole table."

Louise remembered what Ray said very well, and she repeated it to a
profound joy in Maxwell. It gave him an exquisite pleasure, and it
flattered him to believe that, as the hostess had said in response,
they, the nice people, must see it, though he had his opinion of nice
people, apart from their usefulness in seeing his play. To reward his
wife for it all, he rose as soon as he had drunk his coffee, and went
out to put on his hat and coat. She went with him, and saw that he put
them on properly, and did not go off with half his coat-collar turned
up. After he got his hat on, she took it off to see whether his
cow-lick was worse than usual.

"Why, good heavens! Godolphin's seen me before, and besides, I'm not
going to propose marriage to him," he protested.

"Oh, it's much more serious than that!" she sighed. "Anybody would take
_you_, dear, but it's your play we want him to take--or take back."

When Maxwell reached the hotel, he did not find Godolphin there. He came
back twice; then, as something in his manner seemed to give Maxwell
authority, the clerk volunteered to say that he thought he might find
the actor at the Players' Club. In this hope he walked across to
Gramercy Park. Godolphin had been dining there, and when he got
Maxwell's name, he came half way down the stairs to meet him. He put his
arm round him to return to the library.

There happened to be no one else there, and he made Maxwell sit