"Before you came he was nothing to me. He never has been anything."

Without waiting for Lorraine to speak, she turned again, and added:

"If you weren't a fool, you would perceive he is treating you better
than ninety-nine men in a hundred. He has suggested marriage. The
others might not have done."

"Oh! I'm not a fool in that way," came the bitter reply, "but I've
wondered once or twice what your attitude would have been, supposing -
er - he had been one of the ninety-nine!"

Mrs. Vivian was saved replying by the unexpected appearance of Frank
Raynor himself. Entering the room with a quick step, he suddenly
stopped short and looked from one to the other. Something in their
expressions told him what had transpired. He turned sharply on the
mother.

"You've been speaking to Lorraine about me. I told you I wouldn't have
it. I know your bullying ways, and I said she was to be left to decide
for herself."

Lorraine saw an angry retort on her mother's lips, and hurriedly left
the room. She put on her hat and slipped away into the Park. What was
she to do?... where, oh where was Hal!

Within three months the short cut was taken. Lorraine was engaged to
play a leading part at the Greenway Theatre, and she was the wife of
Frank Raynor.