"He is a good man, Dick. He never permits himself to forget that she
is its mistress. She will have something to say on the subject, you
may be sure of that. I am not quite certain that she approves of the
stage, and I've heard her say that actresses must be dreadful
creatures if one believes all one hears about them smoking cigarettes
and stealing young boys out of college. That was before she knew of my
late lamented past. She has been perfectly lovely to me since,
however, and I believe she is pleasantly excited by my 'gossip of the
footlights,' as she calls it. She asked me the other day if it is true
that chorus girls are more sinned against than sinning."'

"She did?" he cried, grinning. "And what did you say to that?"

"I said it was quite true," she said flatly.

"Well, it won't hurt her to think that they'd all be angels if they
had their way about it. Now, let's get back to facts, dear. I've told
Mr. Bingle that the play can be finished in a month or six weeks. He
is for putting it on at once, but I don't believe it's good business
to risk trying it out at the tail end of a very bad season. Things are
bound to be better in the fall. My idea is to begin rehearsals late in
the summer, play a couple of weeks in the tank towns to whip the thing
into shape, and then go into New York some time in September. I'll
begin getting a cast together this spring--none but the best, you
understand--and that will give us a fair chance to go into Broadway
with a corking production. Who do you consider to be the best leading
man in the business to-day?"

Now, Mr. Bingle WAS having quite a time of it with the mistress of the
house. In his new-found enthusiasm, he went to her at once with the