smaker, who had
come to see the effect of Enid Mardon's costumes which she had
"created." Charmian and the dressmaker, a massive and handsome woman,
were sitting together in the stalls, discussing Enid Mardon's caprices.

"She tore the dress to pieces," said the dressmaker. "She made rags of
it, and then pinned it together all wrong, and said to me--to
_me_!--that now it began to look like an Ouled Nail girl's costume. I
told her if she liked to face Noo York--"

"H'sh-sh!" whispered Charmian. "There's the prelude beginning at last.
She's not going to--?"

"No. Of course she had to come back to my original idea!"

And the dressmaker pressed a large handkerchief against her handsome
nose, savored the last new perfume, and leaned back in her stall
magisterially with a faint smile.

It was at this moment that Mrs. Shiffney came into a box at the back of
the stalls followed by Jonson Ramer. Without taking off her sable coat
she sat down in a corner and looked quickly over the obscure space
before her. Immediately she saw Charmian and the dressmaker, who sat
within a few yards of her. Claude was not visible. Mrs. Shiffney sat
back a little farther in the box, and whispered to Mr. Ramer.

"Are you really going to join the Directorate of the Metropolitan?" she
said.

"I may, when this season's over."

"Does Crayford know it?"

Mr. Ramer shook his massive and important head.

"I'm not certain of it myself," he observed, with a smile.

"And if you do join?"

"If I decide to join"--he glanced round the enormous empty house. "I
think I should buy Crayford out of here."

"Would he go?"

"I think he might--for a price."

"If this new man turns out to be worth while, I suppose you would take
him over as one of the--what are they called--one of the assets?"

"Ha!" He leaned toward her, and just touched her arm with one of his
powerful hands. "You must tell me to-night whether he is going to be
worth while."

"Won't you know?"

"I might when I got him before a New York audience. But you are more
likely to know to-night."

"I have got rather a flair, I believe. Now--I'll taste the new work."

She did not speak again, but gave herself up to attention, though her
mind was often with the woman in the sealskin coat who sat so near to
her. Had Claude said anything to that woman? There was very little to
say. But--had he said it? She wondered on what terms Charmian and Claude
were, whether the Puritan had ever found