manager finished--"or else
you have got to treat it frankly as the leading part in the piece, and
get it into the hands of some leading actress."

"Do you mean," the author asked, "that you--or any manager--would take
it if that were done?"

Grayson looked a little unhappy. "No, that isn't what I mean, exactly. I
mean that as it stands, no manager would risk it, and that as soon as an
actor had read it, he would see, as Godolphin must have seen from the
start, that Haxard was a subordinate part. What you want to do is to get
it in the hands of some woman who wants to star, and would take the road
with it." The manager expatiated at some length on the point, and then
he stopped, and sat silent, as if he had done with the subject.

Maxwell perceived that the time had come for him to get up and go away.

"I'm greatly obliged to you for all your kindness, Mr. Grayson, and I
won't abuse your patience any further. You've been awfully good to me,
and--" He faltered, in a dejection which he could not control. Against
all reason, he had hoped that the manager would have taken his piece
just as it stood, and apparently he would not have taken it in any
event.

"You mustn't speak of that," said the manager. "I wish you would let me
see anything else you do. There's a great deal that's good in this
piece, and I believe that a woman who would make it her battle-horse
could make it go."

Maxwell asked, with melancholy scorn, "But you don't happen to know any
leading lady who is looking round for a battle-horse?"

The manager seemed trying to think. "Yes, I do. You wouldn't like her
altogether, and I don't say she would be the ideal Salome, but she would
be, in her way, effective; and I know that she wants very much to get a
play. She hasn't been doing anything for a year or two but getting
married and divorced, but she made a very good start. She used to call
herself Yolande Havisham; I don't suppose it was her name; and she had a
good deal of success in the West; I don't think she's ever appeared in
New York. I believe she was of quite a good Southern family; the
Southerners all are; and I hear she has money."

"Godolphin mentioned a Southern girl for the part," said Maxwell. "I
wonder if--"

"Very likely it's the same one. She does emotional leads. She and
Godolphin played together in California, I believe. I was trying to
think of her married name--or her unmarried name--"

Some one knocked at the door, and the young m