march of civilization?"

"Of course I've heard--but I have been out of touch with such things,"
Whitaker apologized. "When shall I see her?"

"At supper, to-night," said the man of law. "It's really in her
honour--"

"In honour of her retirement," Max interrupted, fussing with a gardenia
on his lapel. "She retires from the stage finally, and forever--she
says--when the curtain falls to-night."

"Then I've got to be in the theatre to-night--if that's the case," said
Whitaker. "It isn't my notion of an occasion to miss."

"You're right there," Max told him bluntly. "It's no small matter to
me--losing such a star; but the world's loss of its greatest
artist--_ah!_" He kissed his finger-tips and ecstatically flirted the
caress afar.

"'Fraid you won't get in, though," Drummond doubted darkly. "Everything
in the house for this final week was sold out a month ago. Even the
speculators are cleaned out."

"_Tut!_" the manager reproved him loftily. "Hugh is going to see Sara
Law act for the last time from my personal box--aren't you, Hugh?"

"You bet I am!" Whitaker asserted with conviction.

"Then come along." Max caught him by the arm and started for the door.
"So long, Drummond...."

VI

CURTAIN

Nothing would satisfy Max but that Whitaker should dine with him. He
consented to drop him at the Ritz-Carlton, in order that he might dress,
only on the condition that Whitaker would meet him at seven, in the
white room at the Knickerbocker.

"Just mention my name to the head waiter," he said with magnificence;
"or if I'm there first, you can't help seeing me. Everybody knows my
table--the little one in the southeast corner."

Whitaker promised, suppressing a smile; evidently the hat was not the
only peculiarity of Mr. Hammerstein's that Max had boldly made his own.

Max surprised him by a shrewd divination of his thoughts. "I know what
you're thinking," he volunteered with an intensely serious expression
shadowing his pudgy countenance; "but really, my dear fellow, it's good
business. You get people into the habit of saying, 'There's Max's
table,' and you likewise get them into the habit of thinking of Max's
theatre and Max's stars. As a matter of fact, I'm merely running an
immense advertising plant with a dramatic annex."

"You are an immense advertisement all by your lonesome," Whitaker agreed
with a tolerant laugh, rising as the car paused at the entrance of the
Ritz.

"Seven o'clock--you won't f