* * * * *

From that moment he devoted himself to the "little Bryce girl." He rode
with her, walked with her, talked with her, roared with amusement over
her _diablerie_, until all tongues clacked about it. Mrs. Andrews left,
in a huff.

"You've got to stop it, Wally," Max ordered. "Every one is talking."

"How can I stop it? You never should have brought her here."

"Well, I'm not going to leave because she makes a fool of herself, so
you can just take a hand."

About this time a group of enthusiasts decided to get up an entertainment.
With fear and trembling they asked the great actor to take part.

"How would you like to act a play with me, Cricket?" he asked her, in
the tone of a god condescending to mortal.

"It would amuse me," she replied.

He laughed.

"This to the great Cartel!" said he, modestly. "Do you know that the
finest actresses in America esteem it a privilege to act with me?"

She grinned.

"There are women in this hotel who would give their eyes for the
chance," he added.

"I need my eyes for seeing my way about," she drawled.

Well as she managed him she was greatly excited at the prospect of
acting with him. She had a dreadful row with Max and Wally on the
subject, but she won out, and the announcement was made that the great
man would put on a Shaw playlet, assisted by the "little Bryce girl."

There followed days of rehearsal and preparation, during which Mr.
Cartel tried to impress his amateur leading lady, and succeeded not at
all.

"That's not the way to do it!" he thundered at her repeatedly.

"All right. But that's the way _I_ have to do it. If I'm going to be
this woman, I have to be her _my_ way, not yours."

So the impudent little baggage faced him out, on his own ground; and he
was forced to admit to himself that, crude as she was, she managed
effects.

"You might be able to act some day," he said to her on an occasion.

"Give me a job, and let me try."

"You mean it?"

"Certainly."

"But your parents?"

"They'd howl--and give in. They always do."

"H'm--well, we'll see."

* * * * *

The great night came. Needless to say that the Shaw playlet and the
brilliant Cartel were the events of the occasion. Isabelle was by no means
obliterated in his shadow. She made a very considerable impression. There
was a sort of fire about her. Her lines were read, not recited; and Shaw
is the acid test for