f Jules Max."

Whitaker bent forward, his countenance discovering a phase of
seriousness hitherto masked by his twisted smile. He emphasized his
points with a stiff, tapping forefinger on the cloth.

"I mean, I'm tired of all this poppycock. Unless I'm an infatuated ass,
Mary loves me with all her heart. She has made up her mind to renounce
me partly because Max has worked upon her feelings by painting some
lurid picture of his imminent artistic and financial damnation if she
leaves him, partly because she believes, or has been led to believe, in
this 'destroying angel' moonshine. Now she's got to listen to reason.
So, likewise, Max."

"You're becoming more human word by word," commented Ember with open
approval. "Continue; elucidate; I can understand how a fairly resolute
lover with the gift of gab can talk a weak-minded, fond female into
denying her pet superstition; but how you're going to get round Max
passes my comprehension. The man unquestionably has her under
contract--"

"But you forgot his god is Mammon," Whitaker put in. "Max will do
anything in the world for money. Therein resides the kernel of my plan.
It's simplicity itself: I'm going to buy him."

"Buy Max!"

"Body--artistic soul--and breeches," Whitaker affirmed confidently.

"Impossible!"

"You forget how well fixed I am. What's the use of my owning half the
gold in New Guinea if it won't buy me what I already own by every moral
and legal right?"

"He won't listen to you; you don't know Max."

"I'm willing to lay you a small bet that there will be no first
performance at the Theatre Max to-morrow night."

"You'll never persuade him--"

"I'll buy the show outright and my wife's freedom to boot--or else Max
will begin to accumulate the local colour of a hospital ward."

Ember smiled grimly. "You're beginning to convince even me. When, may I
ask, do you propose to pull off this sporting proposition?"

"Do you know where Max can be found to-night?"

"At the theatre--"

"Then the matter will be arranged at the theatre between this hour and
midnight."

"I doubt if you succeed in getting the ear of the great man before
midnight; however, I'm not disposed to quibble about a few hours."

"But why shouldn't I?"

"Because Max is going to be the busiest young person in town to-night.
And that is why I've been looking for you.... Conforming to his custom,
he's giving an advance glimpse of the production to the critics and a
few friends in t