u say: 'Ah, _there_ you are!'"

Harrietta looked at him for a long, long minute. Her lips were parted.
Her breath came quickly. She spoke: "I say--_what?_"

"You say: 'Ah, _there_ you are.'"

"Never!" said Harrietta Fuller, and brought her closed fist down on her
open palm for emphasis. "Never!"

* * * * *

It was August when she again was crossing desert, plains, and farmlands.
It was the tail-end of a dusty, hot, humid August in New York when Ken
stood at the station, waiting. As he came forward, raising one arm, her
own arm shot forward in quick protest, even while her glad eyes held
his.

"Don't take it off!"

"What off?"

"Your hat. Don't take it off. Kiss me--but leave your hat on."

She clutched his arm. She looked up at him. They were in the taxi bound
for Fifty-sixth Street. "She moved? She's out? She's gone? You told her
I'd pay her anything--a bonus----" Then, as he nodded, she leaned back,
relaxed. Something in her face prompted him.

"You're young and beautiful and bewitching," said Ken.

"Keep on saying it," pleaded Harrietta. "Make a chant of it." ...

Sam Klein, the veteran, was the first to greet her when she entered the
theatre at that first September rehearsal. The company was waiting for
her. She wasn't late. She had just pleasantly escaped being unpunctual.
She came in, cool, slim, electric. Then she hesitated. For the fraction
of a second she hesitated. Then Sam Klein greeted her: "Company's
waiting, Miss Fuller, if you're ready." And the leading man came
forward, a flower in his buttonhole, carefully tailored and slightly
yellow as a leading man of forty should be at 10:30 A. M. "How
wonderful you're looking, Harrietta," he said.

Sam Klein took her aside. "You're going to make the hit of your career
in this part, Miss Fuller. Yessir, dear, the hit of your career. You
mark my words."

"Don't you think," stammered Harrietta--"don't you think it will take
someone--someone--younger--to play the part?"

"Younger than what?"

"Than I."

Sam Klein stared. Then he laughed. "Younger than you! Say, listen, do
you want to get the Gerry Society after me?"

And as he turned away a Young Thing with worshipful eyes crept up to
Harrietta's side and said tremulously: "Oh, Miss Fuller, this is my
first chance on Broadway, and may I tell you how happy I am to be
playing with you? You've been my ideal ever since I was a--for a long,
long time."

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