to chafe at poverty which he had assured her made no
difference to him. Did he wish to live again terrible years of sacrifice
and sordidness? If so, he could not hope a woman accustomed to luxury
would choose to share his struggle. He was absurd.

* * * * *

"Money," Dearborn said, regarding his shabby cuffs, "opens many doors. I
am inclined also to think that it shuts many doors. You remember the
Kingdom of Heaven and the needle's eye; but," he continued whimsically,
"I should not think of comparing Mrs. Faversham to a camel, Tony!"

"Don't be an ass," said Antony, proudly. "Mrs. Faversham and I feel
alike about it. Money will play no part in our mutual future." And, as
he said this, was sure neither of her nor of himself.

"Under which circumstances," said his companion, "I shall offer you
another cup of coffee and tell you my secret. Going with my play to
London is not the only one. I am in love. When you have drunk your
coffee we'll go home. Potowski is going to play for us, and he is going
to bring his wife at last."

The two friends sat that evening in a corner of a cafe on the Boulevard
Montparnasse. There were Bohemians around them at their table, and they
themselves were part of that happy, struggling world. Dearborn dropped
his voice, and said softly to Fairfax--

"And I have asked my little girl to come as well to-night to hear the
music."

Fairfax, instead of drinking his coffee, stared at Dearborn, and when
Dearborn murmured, "Nora Scarlet is her name. Isn't it a name for a
drama?" Fairfax stared still harder and repeated the girl's name under
his breath, flushing, but Dearborn did not observe it.

"I want you to see her, Tony; she is sweet and good."

"Bob," said Fairfax gravely, "you mean to tell me you have been falling
in love and carrying on a romance without telling me a word about it?"

Dearborn smiled. "To tell the truth, old man," he replied, "you have
been so absorbed; there was not room for two romances in the studio.

"I met her in the springtime, Gentle Annie," Dearborn said whimsically,
"and it was raining cats and dogs--but for me it rained just love and
Nora. We were both waiting for a 'bus. Neither one of us had an
umbrella. Now that you speak of it, Tony, I think we have never mended
that lack in our possessions. We climbed to the _imperiale_ together,
and the rain beat upon us both. We laughed, and I said to myself, a girl
that can laugh like tha