e. Creature of rich,
luscious sentiment, of gorgeous emotions, she scorned to be untrue to
the equatorial magnificence of her nature. Nor had she yet finished
expressing her resentment. All the untamable tiger in her had been
roused, all the fiery, indomitable pride that was as essentially a
part of her as her fixed conception of her genius. She was not to be
browbeaten by adverse fortune into whining and accepting charity from
her husband's mistresses--she had slipped into using the plural now.
She turned at bay against the whole situation. Let these people go
unpaid for the present--she would pay them when she could. She wanted
to go out at once and make a speech to them, but Morgan, fearful of
some great uproar, managed to prevail on her to let him make the
announcement that money engagements could not be kept.

Very much to his astonishment, everybody took the news quietly enough.
"Is there no chance of getting anything?" he was asked, and sad indeed
were all faces when he assured them every penny had been lost, and
that, though his wife had been confident of raising some more
money--he mentioned this possibly with the idea of softening the
bitterness against Cleo--her hope had been quite disappointed. Morgan
himself almost trembled with emotion, for he knew how eagerly some of
them had sought the engagement. Three weeks of rehearsal and a week of
acting under most trying and disheartening circumstances, and then to
receive nothing! And all that time they had submitted to be bullied
and blustered at. If the whole affair had not been so piteous it
would have seemed grotesque.

The stage manager, arriving just then, was less tractable, and Morgan
feared his vehemence would excite the others.

"And she had the----impudence to chuck me out of her----theatre," he
screamed; "and now I can't get a----penny out of her!"

He announced his intention of breaking her head forthwith, and
threatened "to do for" Morgan, who barred his way.

Cleo left the theatre a little later, followed by abuse from the stage
manager, who was forcibly held back by some of the company. She looked
longingly at the trunk in the hall, but had apparently resigned
herself to the loss of her costumes, for she passed by in silence.

In the afternoon, Morgan was astonished at being served at their rooms
with a writ, which concerned both him and Cleo, and which had been
taken out on behalf of one of the creditors. Though Cleo had run the
theatre on