vercoat was jerked off by a mysterious agency.

The noise continued to be terrible: it rose and fell like the sea.

Then he was aware of Jane Map rushing towards him and of Jane Map
kissing him rapturously on the mouth. 'Come _on_,' cried Jane Map, and
pulled him by the hand, helter-skelter, until they came in front of a
blaze of light and the noise crashed at his ears.

'I've been through this before somewhere,' he thought, while Jane Map
wrung his hand. 'Was it in a previous existence? No. The Alhambra!' What
made him remember the Alhambra was the figure of little Doxey sheepishly
joining himself and Jane. Doxey, with a disastrous lack of foresight,
had been in the opposite wing, and had had to run round the stage in
order to come before the curtain. Doxey's share in the triumph was
decidedly less than half....

'No,' Henry said later, with splendid calm, when Geraldine, Jane, Doxey,
and himself were drinking champagne in Jane's Empire dressing-room, 'it
wasn't nervousness. I don't quite know what it was.'

He gathered that the success had been indescribable.

Jane radiated bliss.

'I tell you what, old man,' said Doxey: 'we must adapt _The
Plague-Spot_, eh?'

'We'll see about that,' said Henry.

Two days afterwards Henry arose from a bed of pain, and was able to
consume a little tea and dry toast. Geraldine regaled his spiritual man
with the press notices, which were tremendous. But more tremendous than
the press notices was John Pilgrim's decision to put _Love in Babylon_
after the main piece in the bill of Prince's Theatre. _Love in Babylon_
was to begin at the honourable hour of ten-forty in future, for the
benefit of the stalls and the dress-circle.

'Have you thought about Mr. Doxey's suggestion?' Geraldine asked him.

'Yes,' said Henry; 'but I don't quite see the point of it.'

'Don't see the point of it, sweetheart?' she protested, stroking his
dressing-gown. 'But it would be bound to be a frightful success, after
this.'

'I know,' said Henry. 'But why drag in Doxey? I can write the next play
myself.'

She kissed him.

CHAPTER XXVIII

HE SHORTENS HIS NAME

One day Geraldine needed a doctor. Henry was startled, frightened,
almost shocked. But when the doctor, having seen Geraldine, came into
the study to chat with Geraldine's husband, Henry put on a calm
demeanour, said he had been expecting the doctor's news, said also that
he saw no cause for anxiety or excitement, and generall