is
business."

Ransdell not only knew, but also took endless pains with her. He was a
tall, thin, dark man, strikingly handsome in the distinguished way. So
distinguished looking was he that to meet him was to wonder why he had
not made a great name for himself. An extraordinary mind he certainly
had, and an insight into the reasons for things that is given only to
genius. He had failed as a composer, failed as a playwright, failed as
a singer, failed as an actor. He had been forced to take up the
profession of putting on dramatic and musical plays, a profession that
required vast knowledge and high talents and paid for them in niggardly
fashion both in money and in fame. Crossley owed to him more than to
any other single element the series of successes that had made him
rich; yet the ten thousand a year Crossley paid him was regarded as
evidence of Crossley's lavish generosity and was so. It would have
been difficult to say why a man so splendidly endowed by nature and so
tireless in improving himself was thus unsuccessful. Probably he
lacked judgment; indeed, that lack must have been the cause. He could
judge for Crossley; but not for himself, not when he had the feeling of
ultimate responsibility.

Mildred had anticipated the most repulsive associations--men and women
of low origin and of vulgar tastes and of vulgarly loose lives. She
found herself surrounded by simple, pleasant people, undoubtedly
erratic for the most part in all their habits, but without viciousness.
And they were hard workers, all. Ransdell--for Crossley--tolerated no
nonsense. His people could live as they pleased, away from the
theater, but there they must be prompt and fit. The discipline was as
severe as that of a monastery. She saw many signs that all sorts of
things of the sort with which she wished to have no contact were going
on about her; but as she held slightly--but not at all
haughtily--aloof, she would have had to go out of her way to see enough
to scandalize her. She soon suspected that she was being treated with
extraordinary consideration. This was by Crossley's orders. But the
carrying out of their spirit as well as their letter was due to
Ransdell. Before the end of that first week she knew that there was
the personal element behind his admiration for her voice and her talent
for acting, behind his concentrating most of his attention upon her
part. He looked his love boldly whenever they were alone; he was