as a note of self-mastery as well as of resolution. "It is a city
set on a hill. To take it brings great glory and lasting honor."

She smiled up at him again, a proud light in her eyes. "Now you are
your good, rugged self, the man who 'hypnotized' me into taking
_Lillian's Duty_. You'll need all your courage; the critics are to be
out in force."

"I do not fear them," he answered, as they whirled into the plaza and up
to the side entrance of the hotel.

"I've engaged a room for you here, Douglass," said Hugh, and the new
note of almost comradeship struck the playwright with wonder. He was a
little sceptical of it.

"Very well," he answered. "I am reckless. I will stay one day."

"Mother will be waiting to see you," said Helen, as they entered the
hall. "She is your stanch supporter."

"She is a dear mother. I wish she were my own."

Each word he uttered now carried a hidden meaning, and some inner
relenting, some sweet, secret concession which he dimly felt but dared
not presume upon, gave her a girlish charm which she had never before
worn in his eyes.

They took lunch together, seated at the same table in the same way, and
yet not in the same spirit. He was less self-centred, less insistent.
His winter of proved inefficiency, his sense of indebtedness to her, his
all-controlling love for her gave him a new appeal. He was at once
tender and humorous as he referred again to _Alessandra_.

"Well, now that my chief work of art is destroyed, I must begin again at
the bottom. I have definitely given up all idea of following my
profession. I am going to do specials for one of the weeklies. Anderson
has interceded for me. I am to enter the ranks of the enemy. I am not
sure but I ought to do a criticism of my own play to-morrow night."

She was thinking of other things. "Tell me of your people. Did you talk
of me to them? What did they say of me?"

"They all think of you as a kind, middle-aged lady, who has been very
good to a poor country boy."

She laughed. "How funny! Why should they think me so old?"

"They can't conceive how a mere girl can be so rich and powerful. How
could they realize the reckless outpouring of gold which flows from
those who seek pleasure to those who give it."

She grew instantly graver. "They would despise me if they knew. I don't
like being a mere toy of the public--a pleasure-giver and nothing else.
Of course there are different ways of pleasing. That is why I couldn't
do _Alessa