ere, and this late visit
could have but one motive.

They stood face to face. The elder woman was so incensed that her lips
moved fruitlessly, like those of a paralytic.

'I suppose you're going to make a scene,' Clara addressed her. 'Please
remember how late it is, and don't let all the house hear you.'

'You mean to tell me you accepted that offer of Peel's--without saying
a word--without as much as telling him that he ought to speak to me
first?'

'Certainly I did. I've waited long enough; I'm not going to beat about
the bush when my chance comes.'

'And you called yourself my friend?'

'I'm nobody's friend but my own in an affair of this kind. If you'd
been in my place you'd have done just the same.'

'I wouldn't! I _couldn't_ have been such a mean creature! Every man and
woman in the company'll cry shame on you.'

'Don't deafen me with your nonsense! If you played the part badly, I
suppose some one else must take it. You were only on trial, like I
shall be.'

Grace was livid with fury.

'Played badly! As if we didn't all know how you've managed it! Much it
has to do with good or bad acting! We know how creatures of your kind
get what they want.'

Before the last word was uttered she was seized with a violent fit of
coughing; her cheeks flamed, and spots of blood reddened on the
handkerchief she put to her mouth. Half-stifled, she lay back in the
angle of the wall by the door. Clara regarded her with a contemptuous
pity, and when the cough had nearly ceased, said coldly:

'I'm not going to try and match you in insulting language; I dare say
you'd beat me at that. If you take my advice, you'll go home and take
care of yourself; you look ill enough to be in bed. I don't care what
you or anyone else thinks of me; what you said just now was a lie, but
it doesn't matter. I've got the part, and I'll take good care that I
keep it. You talk about us being friends; I should have thought you
knew by this time that there's no such thing as friendship or
generosity or feeling for women who have to make their way in the
world. You've had your hard times as well as I, and what's the use of
pretending what you don't believe? You wouldn't give up a chance for
me; I'm sure I should never expect you to. We have to fight, to fight
for everything, and the weak get beaten. That's what life has taught
me.'

'You're right,' was the other's reply, given with a strangely sudden
calmness. 'And we'll see who wins.'

Clara