his time there entered a husky, young brute of a boy with shoulders
broad enough to run a double-decker plough. His hair was long and
sleeked close to his well-shaped head, but his fine mouth and chin
sagged, and his eyes were bold and sophisticated. In costume he was the
glass and mould of Broadway fashion.

"Reginald Leigh," he announced himself in a nice voice, and, as he
spoke, took from a case a card and laid it on the edge of Mr.
Vandeford's desk.

"Experience, Mr. Leigh?" asked Mr. Vandeford, still standing and with
not an atom of encouragement in his whole body from head to toe.

"College dramatics and last summer in stock at Buffalo. I've worked in
two pictures for the Universal."

"Heavy juvenile at fifty a week," offered Mr. Vandeford, with an
indifferent glance up from the paper in his hand prepared for his
guidance by the indefatigable Mr. Meyers. The word "handsome" was typed
in the offer from which Mr. Vandeford made to Mr. Leigh.

"My price is a hundred, Mr. Vandeford," answered Mr. Leigh, very
pleasantly, and he took a grip on his hat and stick that was meant to
convey the idea of immediate departure.

"Sorry," answered Mr. Vandeford, with a finality that staggered Mr.
Dennis Farraday; for the youngster's looks and charm were so evident
that it pained him to see "The Purple Slipper" lose them. "Costumes
historical, furnished," added Mr. Vandeford, with increased
indifference.

"Oh, in that case--" murmured the boy, almost, but not quite, unleashing
his eagerness.

"Just leave your telephone number with Mr. Meyers in the outer office,
please. Good-morning, Mr. Leigh," was the answer his concession got
along with the dismissal in the "good-morning," which was spoken in such
a tone that it was obeyed in short order.

"That is a find," said Mr. Godfrey Vandeford to the gasping Mr. Dennis
Farraday. "Handsome young chaps who have any kind of manliness are hard
to find these days. Too busy to be actors."

"Why didn't you engage him?" further gasped his partner in the adventure
of "The Purple Slipper."

"I'll let him cool his heels, to get some of the know-it out of his
system. Dolph will make him come around and beg in less than twenty-four
hours."

"See here, Van, these people are artists to whom you are trusting your
money and reputation as a producer, and you treat them like--"

"The foolish children that they are," interrupted Mr. Vandeford. "Next!"
and he pressed a button under his desk t