ge, in a whisper, when Waife had drawn
him to the farthest end of the inner room, with the bed-curtains between
their position and the door, deadening the sound of their voices,--"am I
to understand that, after my taking you and that child to my theatre out
of charity, and at your own request, you are going to quit me without
warning,--French leave; is that British conduct?"

"Mr. Rugge," replied Waife, deprecatingly, "I have no engagement with
you beyond an experimental trial. We were free on both sides for three
months,--you to dismiss us any day, we to leave you. The experiment does
not please us: we thank you and depart."

RUGGE.--"That is not the truth. I said I was free to dismiss you both,
if the child did not suit. You, poor helpless creature, could be of no
use. But I never heard you say you were to be free too. Stands to reason
not! Put my engagements at a Waife's mercy! I, Lorenzo Rugge!--stuff!
But I am a just man, and a liberal man, and if you think you ought to
have a higher salary, if this ungrateful proceeding is only, as I take
it, a strike for wages, I will meet you. Juliet Araminta does play
better than I could have supposed; and I'll conclude an engagement on
good terms, as we were to have done if the experiment answered, for
three years." Waife shook his head. "You are very good, Mr. Rugge, but
it is not a strike. My little girl does not like the life at any price;
and, since she supports me, I am bound to please her. Besides," said
the actor, with a stiffer manner, "you have broken faith with me. It was
fully understood that I was to appear no more on your stage; all my task
was to advise with you in the performances, remodel the plays, help in
the stage-management; and you took advantage of my penury, and, when I
asked for a small advance, insisted on forcing these relics of what I
was upon the public pity. Enough: we part. I bear no malice."

RUGGE.--"Oh, don't you? No more do I. But I am a Briton, and I have the
spirit of one. You had better not make an enemy of me."

WAIFE.--"I am above the necessity of making enemies. I have an enemy
ready made in myself."

Rugge placed a strong bony hand upon the cripple's arm. "I dare say you
have! A bad conscience, sir. How would you like your past life looked
into, and blabbed out?"

GENTLEMAN WAIFE (mournfully).--"The last four years of it have been
spent in your service, Mr. Rugge. If their record had been blabbed out
for my benefit, there would no