ot be true. But--but now I know it is. Oh, why don't you say
something--anything?" she broke out passionately.

Challoner looked up. "What can I say, if this is true?"

"It is true," her face was flushed. There was a hard look in her eyes
as if she were trying to keep back tears. After a moment she moved
over to where he sat and laid a hand on his shoulder.

Jimmy Challoner turned his head and kissed it.

"Don't take it so badly, Jimmy. It's--it's worse for me," her voice
broke. A cleverer man than Jimmy Challoner might have heard the little
theatrical touch in the words, but Jimmy was too genuinely miserable
himself to be critical.

At the first sob he was on his feet. He put his arms round her; he
laid his cheek against her hair; but he did not kiss her. Afterwards
he wondered what instinct it was that kept him from kissing her. He
broke out into passionate protestations.

"I can't give you up. There must be some way out for us all. You
don't love him, and you do care for me. It can't be true, it's--it's
some abominable trick to part us, Cynthia."

"It is true," she said again. "It is true."

She drew away from him. She began to cry, carefully, so as not to
spoil her make-up. She hid her face in her hands. Once she looked at
him through her white fingers to see how he was taking it. Jimmy
Challoner was taking it very badly indeed. He stood biting his lip
hard. His hands were clenched.

"For God's sake don't cry," he broke out at length. "It drives me mad
to see you cry. I'll find a way out. We should have been so happy. I
can't give you up."

He spoke incoherently and stammeringly. He was really very much in
love, and now the thought of separation was a burning glass, magnifying
that love a thousandfold.

There were voices outside. Cynthia hastily dried her eyes. She did
not look as if she had been crying very bitterly.

"That's my call. I shall have to go. Don't keep me now. I'll write,
Jimmy. I'll see you again."

"You promise me that, whatever happens?"

"I promise." He caught her fingers and kissed them. "Darling, I'll
come back for you when the show's over. I can't bear to leave you like
this. You do love me?"

"Do you need to ask?"

The words were an evasion, but he did not notice it. He went back to
the stage box feeling as if the world had come to an end.

He forgot all about the Wyatts in the stalls below. Christine's brown
eyes turned towards him aga