elessly spoilt in
order to bring in some ridiculous 'business' wholly incongruous with
the setting and date of the play. He had had a fierce altercation on
the stage with the actor-manager. The cast, meanwhile, dispersed
at the back of the stage or in the wings, looked on maliciously or
chatted among themselves; while every now and then one or other of the
antagonists would call up the leading lady, or the conceited gentleman
who was to act Count Fersen, and hotly put a case. Fenwick was madly
conscious all the time of his lessened consideration and dignity in
the eyes of a band of people whom he despised. Two years before,
his cooperation would have been an honour and his opinion law.
Now, nothing of the kind; indeed, through the heated remarks of the
actor-manager there ran the insolent implication that Mr. Fenwick's
wrath was of no particular account to anybody, and that he was
presuming on a commission he had been very lucky to get.

At last a crowd of stage-hands, setting scenery for another piece in
the evening, invaded the stage, and the rehearsal was just breaking
up when Fenwick, still talking in flushed exasperation, happened to
notice two ladies standing in the wings, on the other side of the vast
stage, close to the stage-entrance.

He suddenly stopped talking--stammered--looked again. They were two
girls, one evidently a good deal older than the other. The elder was
talking with the assistant stage-manager. The younger stood quietly, a
few yards away, not talking to any one. Her eyes were on Fenwick, and
her young, slightly frowning face wore an expression of amusement--of
something besides, also--something puzzled and intent. It flashed upon
him that she had been there for some time, that he had been vaguely
conscious of her--that she had, in fact, been watching from a distance
the angry scene in which he had been engaged.

'Why!--whatever is the matter, Mr. Fenwick?' said the actor beside
him, startled by his look.

Fenwick made no answer, but he dropped a roll of papers he was holding
and suddenly rushed forward across the stage, through the throng of
carpenters and scene-shifters who were at work upon it. Some garden
steps and a fountain just being drawn into position came in his way;
he stumbled and fell, was conscious of two or three men coming to his
assistance, rose again, and ran on, blindly, pushing at the groups in
his way, till he ran into the arms of the stage-manager.

'Who were those la