tic. Her mind, passing in rapid review over recent events,
dwelt not without certain satisfaction upon results. True, every night
she was still forced to witness Constance's success, which of itself
was wormwood and gall to Susan, to stand in the wings and listen to
the hateful applause; but the conviction that the sweets of popular
favor brought not what they were expected to bring, was, in a way, an
antidote to Susan's dissatisfaction.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing and can sometimes be made
annoying; in Susan's case it was a weapon sharpened with honeyed
phrase and consolatory bearing, for she was not slow to discover nor
to avail herself of the irritating power this knowledge gave her.
Constance's pride and reticence, however, made it difficult for Susan
to discern when her shafts went true. Moreover, although harboring no
suspicion of Susan's dissimulation, she instinctively held aloof from
her and remained coldly unresponsive. Perhaps in the depths of Susan's
past lurked something indefinable which threw its shadow between them,
an inscrutable impediment; and her inability to penetrate the young
actress' reserve, however she might wound her, awakened Susan's
resentment. But she was too world-wise to display her irritation. She
even smiled sweetly now, as confidante to confidante, and, turning to
her impulsively, said:

"Let me help you on with your cloak, dear?"

Out of the quiet, deserted theater, isolated from external din, to the
busy streets, where drays went thundering by, and industry manifested
itself in resounding clatter, was a sudden, but not altogether
unwelcome, change to Constance. Without waiting for the manager, who
paused at the rear entrance to impress his final instructions upon a
stolid-looking property-man, she turned quickly into the noisy
thoroughfares.

On and on her restlessness led her, conscious of the clangor of
vehicles and voices and yet remote from them; past those picturesque
suggestions of the one-time Spanish rulers in which the antiquarian
could detect evidence of remote Oriental infusion; past the silken
seductions of shops, where ladies swarmed and hummed like bees around
the luscious hive; past the idlers' resorts, from whence came the
rat-a-tat of clinking billiard balls and the louder rumble of falling
ten-pins.

In a window of one of these places, a club with a reputation for
exclusiveness, a young man was seated, newspaper in hand, a cup of
black coffee on