ways I shall at least be
showing my gratitude and my confidence in you. It is but right that
two geniuses should be mated. The fact that we both thought of the
same resource under similar conditions--for were you not as forlorn
and alone as I?--was prophetic, and clearly indicated it was fated
your life and mine were to be cast together."

Her masterful definiteness hypnotised him. Her will was strong enough
to do what his own had failed to complete, to draw him away from the
rest of the world and absorb his life in hers.

Cleo had entered into his spirit and had at length not only silenced
but won over the man in him. She had seized on his whole being,
appropriated his every thought, and had attuned to hers every chord of
his complex nature. Her perfume and colour, her exotic beauty, had
entwined themselves in his every fibre, had enslaved his senses, and
intoxicated the thinking part of him. Her genius, too, cast an added
glamour of enchantment over the new life that lay before him--a
dream-life into which this marriage would take him entirely, and by
contrast with which, apart from its anguish, the real life behind him
lay dull and leaden.

To link his life with hers! To launch Cleo as a great actress! To win
renown side by side! He yielded himself to the prospect with eager
enthusiasm!

The notion of taking a theatre that Cleo had put before him at their
last meeting had already led him to make a rough calculation of his
present resources, and he had estimated that a financial clearing-up
would leave him with but little more than three hundred pounds. He
mentioned this now somewhat hesitatingly, for he feared that sum might
be quite inadequate. He was relieved to hear Cleo say that she could
make it suffice; and with her clever management he would very soon be
able to discharge his debt to his friend. She knew exactly how to go
to work and would make all arrangements, but of course she would let
him help her as much as he could.

"We shall set to work the very day we marry, for we must not lose any
time. All I shall take away from here are my costumes. I have some
money that Robert has given me from time to time, but that I am going
to return to him. It would be a desecration for us to use a penny of
his in our new life. Of course we must make our home temporarily in
furnished rooms."

The next day Morgan paid all his odd, floating debts, and got his
particular possessions together; all of which did not occu