kind to her than not. The sooner she was punished for it and done with
it, the better; in her unscientific conception of life, the consequences
of a sin ended with its punishment. If Maxwell had upbraided her with
the bitterness she merited, it would have been to her as if it were all
right again with Godolphin. His failure to do so left the injury
unrepaired, and she would have to do something. "I suppose you don't
care to let me see what you've written to-day?"

"No, not now," said Maxwell, in a tone that said, "I haven't the heart
for it."

They sat awhile without speaking, and then she ventured, "Brice, I have
an idea, but I don't know what you will think of it. Why not take
Godolphin's letter on the face of it, and say that you are very sorry he
must give up the play, and that you will be greatly obliged to him if he
can suggest some other actor? That would be frank, at least."

Maxwell broke into a laugh that had some joy in it. "Do you think so? It
isn't my idea of frankness exactly."

"No, of course not. You always say what you mean, and you don't change.
That is what is so beautiful in you. You can't understand a nature that
is one thing to-day and another thing to-morrow."

"Oh, I think I can," said Maxwell, with a satirical glance.

"Brice!" she softly murmured; and then she said, "Well, I don't care. He
_is_ just like a woman."

"You didn't like my saying so last night."

"That was a different thing. At any rate, it's I that say so now, and I
want you to write that to him. It will bring him back flying. Will you?"

"I'll think about it," said Maxwell; "I'm not sure that I want Godolphin
back, or not at once. It's a great relief to be rid of him, in a certain
way, though a manager might be worse slavery. Still, I think I would
like to try a manager. I have never shown this play to one, and I know
the Odeon people in Boston, and, perhaps--"

"You are saying that to comfort me."

"I wouldn't comfort you for worlds, my dear. I am saying this to
distress you. But since I have worked that love-business over, it seems
to me much less a one-part play, and if I could get a manager to take a
fancy to it I could have my own way with it much better; at least, he
wouldn't want me to take all the good things out of the other
characters' mouths and stuff them into Haxard's."

"Do you really think so?"

"I really thought so before I got Godolphin's letter. That made him seem
the one and only man for me."

"