stopped again with a certain
air of distaste.

"That would be rather romantic, wouldn't it?" his wife asked.

"That was what I was thinking," he answered. "It would be confoundedly
romantic."

"Well, I'll tell you," said Louise; "you could have them squabbling all
the way through, and doing hateful things to one another."

"That would give it the cast of comedy."

"Well?"

"And that wouldn't do either."

"Not if it led up to the pathos and prettiness of their reconciliation
in the end? Shakespeare mixes the comic and the tragic all through!"

"Oh yes, I know that--"

"And it would be very effective to leave the impression of their
happiness with the audience, so that they might have strength to get on
their rubbers and wraps after the tremendous ordeal of your Haxard
death-scene."

"Godolphin wouldn't stand that. He wants the gloom of Haxard's death to
remain in unrelieved inkiness at the end. He wants the people to go
away thinking of Godolphin, and how well he did the last gasp. He
wouldn't stand any love business there. He would rather not have any in
the play."

"Very well, if you're going to be a slave to Godolphin--"

"I'm not going to be a slave to Godolphin, and if I can see my way to
make the right use of such a passage at the close I'll do it even if it
kills the play or Godolphin."

"Now you're shouting," said Louise. She liked to use a bit of slang when
it was perfectly safe--as in very good company, or among those she
loved; at other times she scrupulously shunned it.

"But I can do it somehow," Maxwell mused aloud. "Now I have the right
idea, I can make it take any shape or color I want. It's magnificent!"

"And who thought of it?" she demanded.

"Who? Why, _I_ thought of it myself."

"Oh, you little wretch!" she cried, in utter fondness, and she ran at
him and drove him into a corner. "Now, say that again and I'll tickle
you."

"No, no, no!" he laughed, and he fought away the pokes and thrusts she
was aiming at him. "We both thought of it together. It was mind
transference!"

She dropped her hands with an instant interest in the psychological
phenomena. "Wasn't it strange? Or, no, it wasn't, either! If our lives
are so united in everything, the wonder is that we don't think more
things and say more things together. But now I want you to own, Brice,
that I was the first to speak about your using our situation!"

"Yes, you were, and I was the first to think of it. But that's perf