e ring!" he cried. "You got out o' bed the wrong
side, Eric boy. Don't quarrel, do-ant quarrel! If Lady Barbara wants to
come, let her! It's against the rules, but I'll make an exception for
her." The girl rewarded him with a glowing smile. "You'll be bored, my
dear, I warn you."

"Oh, if I am, I can talk to Eric."

"Look here, Manders, if a rehearsal's worth taking at all, it's worth
taking seriously," cried Eric petulantly. "I've plenty of other use for
my time."

Manders was faintly amused by the outburst and wholly unmoved. Dire
experience of the jealous and irascible had taught him that he could not
afford to let other people lose their tempers.

"Lady Barbara will promise not to talk," he prophesied. "We're late,
boy."

"I shall talk afterwards," she warned them. "At dinner to-night--Mr.
Manders, I can't get Eric to see what bad plays he writes and what good
plays he might turn out. He's very funny about it."

"Authors are a rum lot!" said Manders jocosely, slapping Eric's
shoulder. "See about a taxi, boy. I don't let my people keep me waiting
and I don't want them to wait for me."

It was a defeat for Eric, formally recorded by Barbara with that glint
of triumph which was beginning to fill him with misgiving. They drove in
silence to a side street off Shaftesbury Avenue and groped their way
through the stage-door down a cork-screw staircase and along several
short passages which branched disconcertingly to right or left as soon
as Barbara fancied that she could walk ahead with impunity. From above
came the mechanical runs and flourishes of a piano-organ against the
drone of traffic; somewhere below there was a rapid squeak of voices.
The corridors and stairs were wrapped in warm darkness, and, after one
stumble, Eric felt a hand running down his sleeve and twining round his
fingers.

"Are you angry with me?" Barbara whispered. "You were so _grumpy_ in the
taxi. And I made such a success of your lunch. Mr. Manders and Mr.
Grierson loved me, and I made even you smile."

Eric tried to locate Manders in the velvety darkness before replying.

"You were very amusing," he answered unenthusiastically. "But it's
possible to be amusing even when you're making rather a nuisance of
yourself to several _very_ busy men."

A sigh fluttered wistfully through the darkness, and he felt her drawing
closer to him.

"Aren't you a _little_ bit brutal, Eric?"

"Don't you find every one brutal who doesn't fetch and carr