old books until he knows costuming of thousands of periods in
hundreds of lands and how to sketch it, then gives himself to the
studying of stagecraft and the writing of half a hundred plays until he
writes one that is really great; after which, if he has the strength and
the nerves to produce that play, we will all go to see the great human
drama. That is, if he has had time to live with and in the hearts of
people so as to supply that gross sympathy with the masses who buy
tickets which Rooney got while climbing out of the gutter. God grant he
comes some day to America--but you are not he!"

"No, I'm not," admitted Miss Adair, with her eyes smiling back into his
whimsically, "but what you say makes me see that the--the
producer--_you_ are the whole thing. You get it all--me and Mr. Rooney
and Miss Hawtry together and pound us into--into a play. I make that
acknowledgment."

"If you ask the stage-manager he will say that the success of a play is
his; the costumer will claim that success; the star knows it is his or
hers, and the lead is sure that it is due to the support; the author
surely has some claim to draw the huge royalties, and the location of
his theater makes the theater-owner know that any play in that theater
will go. Yes, the producer will always claim the whole show if it all
goes well. If it fails the show then belongs entirely to the producer,
who picked it in its manuscript stage, and he is no good as a producer.
If he fails a few times hand-running, to the scrap heap with him!"

"But you've never failed," Miss Adair exclaimed, with a dart of fear in
her eyes.

"My last show, 'Miss Cut-up,' was a flivver all right, though we just
saved our faces. But I've got a show now that will put me in electric
light for two years hand-running and--" Mr. Vandeford was in a panic as
he realized that he was going so far in that curious thinking out loud
to Miss Adair that he had been about to launch forth on "The Rosie Posie
Girl" to her. It would have been like telling a friend the plans of his
own funeral with enthusiasm, as it would be obvious to her that Hawtry
would have to fail in and drop "The Purple Slipper" before becoming the
triumphant "Rosie Posie Girl."

"I'm willing to--to let them cut my play all up if--if it will really
run two years and make your reputation more brilliant than it is," Miss
Adair said, interrupting his pause of consternation at his near
betrayal of his plans. She spoke with the w