the
first production was fixed Paul took no special note of the new arrival,
and, indeed, she did not seem specially notable. She was little more
than a child, with a child's stature but a woman's figure. She had
brown eyes and brown hair, and she wore a dress of brown velvet. She was
strange to the crowd about her, so it seemed; for she was introduced
to every member of it, and she scrutinized everybody with a childlike
mixture of frankness and reticence.

'Like a little brown mouse,' said Paul to himself, 'peeping out of
her cranny at an assemblage of cats, without quite knowing the cat's
proclivity.'

Beyond this she was Miss Madge Hampton, an amateur of some small private
means, and he thought no more about her. Rehearsal in an insignificant
part displayed her as capable and willing to be taught.

The company never stayed more than a week in any one town, and for a
considerable part of the time went bushwhacking from place to place,
taking one-night stands! and crawling by sleepy railways amongst some
of the most exquisite scenery of the land. Paul had nothing better
to do--had, indeed, nothing else to do--and found a pleasure in this
revival of old experiences. It reminded him of the ancient days with
Darco, which now looked so far away, and he surrendered himself, as he
had always done, to the interests of the moment and the hour. A fair
proportion of the working day was spent in travel, and sometimes, as
they crossed the exquisite plain of flowering green, with the snowcapped
mountains in the distance, the ladies of the company would cry out at
sight of some especial bank of wild flowers, and the conductor would
stop the leisurely train to let them go out and cull bouquets. At some
such excursions Paul assisted, and, whether by hazard or goodwill, he
found himself oftener by the side of Miss Madge Hampton than elsewhere.
He had himself been born to the inheritance of a most inordinate
mouthful of provincial accent, and since he had studied and learned to
speak almost every dialect known to the little islands which are the
centre of our Empire, his ear had grown nice and critical. The ladies
and gentlemen of the company, with the exception of the famous and
admirable comedian who led them, were all of colonial education, and
they all spoke with the accent the existence of which our colonial
brethren and sisters so strenuously deny. It was, of course, the
language of fashion, as they knew it, but it was, as it