Mr. Vandeford, sir, and here is a carbon of the letter I sent
her, not with any encouragement to come to New York at all," and in
self-defense he handed out to Mr. Vandeford a copy of the letter Roger
had delivered to Patricia among her roses and young onions and
string-beans.

"Take it away," commanded Mr. Vandeford, seating himself at his desk and
wildly shunting papers and letters about.

"Mr. Vandeford, sir, I am sorry for that young lady and I ask you to
have a heart," Mr. Meyers ventured to say to his chief with a boldness
which he himself could not understand, but with which Mr. Vandeford was
strangely patient. He ended with, "It will be a nobleness for you to not
produce a cold show for her, but pay a small damage sum for such a
beautiful lady and call it all off."

"My God, Pops, I'd give half the 'Rosie Posie' to be able to do it! But
Denny and Violet and that girl they engaged for support have already
filled her full of success dope about the play, and if I call it off
arbitrarily, where shall I stand with her?" Ignorance of the
completeness of his own capitulation to the faith and tears in the
sea-gray eyes, and the genuine, grown-on-the-spot blush from Adairville,
Kentucky, showed in the consternation with which he asked the question
of his henchman.

"'Stand with her'!" repeated Mr. Meyers, with a consternation that
matched his chief's, but was of different origin. "You had no such fear
when you called off from rehearsals in the second week the comedy of Mr.
Hinkle, and a fourth of the damages paid to him will to her be--"

"Get to work under your hat, Pops, get to work! The 'Purple Slipper' has
got to go on Broadway and go big. I followed that purple hunch for pure
cussedness against Violet, and now watch it lead me by the nose. You
get Gerald Height on the wire as soon as you can, while I talk to
Rooney."

"But, Mr. Vandeford, sir, it is not a Hawtry play, and--"

"Get busy, get busy, Pops! Put a copy of that manuscript on my desk
where I can lay hands on it the minute I get a chance. Get everything
going for a week later than I first called the show and--"

* * * * *

"Here we are!" exclaimed Mr. Dennis Farraday, as he burst into the outer
office, ushering as a wedge before him Miss Patricia Adair and Miss
Mildred Lindsey. "Got that hat-check, Pops? Money, I mean, for Miss
Lindsey, not a pasteboard for your own lid from some hotel."

For a minute Mr. Vandeford