might not be his only charm for Mrs. Bal. He has eyes which can be
fierce as an eagle's; the strong, almost cruel jaw of the predestined
millionaire who will mount to success at any cost; a pleasure-loving
mouth, and--when he is pleased--a boyish smile. When he is severely
displeased, I shouldn't care to be there to see him, especially if he
were displeased with me. But I suspect Mrs. Bal to be one of those women
who could not love a man unless she were afraid of him. In that may have
lain the secret of Somerled's former fascination for her, if it existed.

"If I've forgotten to mention Barrie, it's because I'm always talking
about _you_, when we're together," Mrs. Bal excused herself with dainty
impertinence of the sort Bennett will stand from her. "If it isn't about
you, it's about your motors--or some affair of yours."

"I thought you, and _your_ affairs were generally the subject of our
conversations," retorted the big man, still looking more at the young
girl than at the woman. "Miss Ballantree is your affair----"

"She has only just become so," Barbara hurried to explain. "Her
grandmother, who thoroughly disapproves of me and all actresses, has
kept the child shut up in a moated grange all her life. It's a wonder I
didn't forget her existence! She _had_ begun to seem like a sort of
dream-sister, until she suddenly dropped in on me yesterday, and
announced that she'd run away from home. I'm simply enchanted to have
the darling with me, for my own sake, or I should be if I hadn't such a
beautiful, unselfish nature that I find I worry myself into fits about
her when she's out of my sight. To-night I couldn't half act, because I
was thinking about her all the time, and wondering what on earth I could
do to make her happy. I foresee I shan't be able to study or rehearse or
anything, while she's getting into mischief in a big hotel. I shall send
her away though to-morrow, for a few days, with some _very_ dear friends
of hers, who will give her a good time until I settle down and feel at
home with this new play--in which, by the way, you don't seem to take
the _slightest_ interest. You haven't said a word about it, or how it
went, or how I acted."

"You know better than that----" Bennett was beginning when Barrie (to
whom, despite his size, he was a figure of no importance) broke in
without being aware that he was speaking.

"Oh, Barbara, you won't make me go _to-morrow_; You promised----"

"If she promised, we must