ave to
pay me also----'"

"Have you known her very long?"

"All my life, more or less."

"She says she knows the girl you're engaged to."

"Yes, of course. We all know each other in our little set. Now, if
you're ready, I'll begin to read."

"'But you will have to pay me also,' said the witch; 'and it is not a
little that I ask. Yours is the loveliest voice in the world, and you
trust to that, I dare say, to charm your love. But you must give it
to me. For my costly drink I claim the best thing you possess. I shall
give you my own blood, so that my draught may be as sharp as a
two-edged sword.' 'But if you take my voice from me, what have I
left?' asked the little mermaid, piteously. 'Your loveliness, your
graceful movements, your speaking eyes. Those are enough to win a
man's heart. Well, is your courage gone? Stretch out your little
tongue, that I may cut it off, and you shall have my magic potion.' 'I
consent,' said the little mermaid."

Letty cried out: "So that when she'd be with him she'd understand
everything, and not be able to tell him anything."

"I'm afraid," he smiled, "that that's what's ahead of her, poor
thing."

"Oh, but that--" she could hardly utter her distress--"Oh, but that's
worse than anything in the world."

He looked up at her curiously. "Would you rather I didn't go on?"

"No, no; please. I--I want to hear it all."

* * * * *

At The Hindoo Lantern Mr. Gorry Larrabin and Mr. Judson Flack found
themselves elbow to elbow outside the rooms where their respective
ladies were putting the final touches to their hats and hair before
entering the grand circle. It was an opportunity especially on Gorry's
part, to seal the peace which had been signed so recently.

"Hello, Judson. What's the prospects in oil?" Judson's tone was
pessimistic. "Not a thing doin', Gorry. Awful slow bunch, that lump
of nuts I'm in with on this. Mentioned your name to one or two of 'em;
but no enterprise. Boneheads that wouldn't know a white man from a
crane." That he understood what Gorry understood became clear as he
continued: "Friend o' mine at the Excelsior passes me the tip that
they've held up that play they were goin' to put my girl into. Can't
get anyone else that would swing the part. Waitin' for her to turn up
again. I suppose you haven't heard anything, Gorry?"

Gorry looked him in the eyes as straight as was possible for a man
with a cast in the left one.