erally flung her forth. But at the expression on her
face the audience actually shouted with delight, they applauded
deafeningly.

Cartel acted quickly. He went up stage, turned his back, and looked out
of a prop. window, for what seemed a lifetime, till the hysterics out in
front subsided. Finally it was still enough for him to take up the scene
again. But at the dramatic entrance of his wife, fresh from a night in
jail, they were off again. Cartel glared at them, and in a shamefaced
sort of way, they subsided, and the play creaked on, as dead as last
year's news.

Mary had a later entrance, which Cartel cut, but it necessitated the
mention of her name, whereupon the monster mirth was loosed again.

Finally the curtain descended upon the tragedy. Mrs. Horton went into
hysterics, and Mr. Horton, bathed in sweat, went to look for Isabelle.

The company stood about in frightened groups, but he did not see them.
He threw open her door without so much as a knock upon it, and he
shouted so you could have heard him in Harlem.

"You little beast! You--you hell-cat! What d'ye mean by spoiling my
scene like that?"

"Oh, I am so sorry," said Isabelle, "I didn't mean to do it, but I got
the two Marys all mixed up."

"You're crazy--you're a mad woman! What do you think this will mean to
me? It means failure--complete failure! I never could get through the
scene again. It means thousands of dollars, that's what it means.
Because I let a stage-struck fool like you speak a line! Talk about
gratitude! You turn and ruin me!"

"But I didn't know----"

"Don't pull that baby stuff!" he shrieked. "You _did_ know. You
_intended_ to do it all the time. You're so crazy about yourself, that
you'd murder your own mother to get the spotlight! Get out of here!
Don't you ever let me see your face again! Don't you ever step in this
theatre, you dirty spy! Take her away! Take her away!" he raved, now
entirely beside himself.

Isabelle for once was dumb. Poor, terrified Miss Watts seized her by the
arm, and dragged her out the stage door, and down the alley.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Isabelle walked Miss Watts for miles. She would not answer questions,
nor discuss the events leading up to Cartel's outburst.

"Of course, he isn't a gentleman," was her only remark during the entire
walk. Poor Miss Watts was utterly in the dark over the whole situation.
She was sitting quietly in the dressing room, reading t