"Well, if you will permit me to be quite plain, Miss Wallace, I don't know that I regarded it as a drawback even if I did guess. An actor depends for his existence on personal favour. He has to please the public in the mass, and, also, as individuals. When a woman tells me she admires me I expect her to take a stall to see me act; if she admires me very much, I expect her to take two or three, or a box. There have been women who have admired me so much that they have booked seats for an entire season. Now proceed a step farther. I can conceive of it as possible that a woman might provide me with the means to take a theatre because her admiration for me was so great. I shouldn't stop to ask myself trivial questions as to whether she was married or single, I should regard the matter as purely one of business--one proof of my success--and take the good the gods provided, while, at the same time, my position in the affair would be entirely a platonic one. I want Talfourd to treat the matter from my point of view, but it seems he can't." "I'm sorry." "I'm not sorry!" The first remark came from Harry, the second from Margaret. She went on: "Now I begin to understand. Of course it's quite inconceivable, Harry, how any one could fall in love with you; but supposing any woman to be so foolish, I certainly don't want you to trade on her affection. I'm not saying it with any desire to wound you, Mr. Winton." "Don't be afraid, I'm not easily wounded." "But, you see, in this case there are other circumstances to be considered--there's me. I'm a factor in the question. And shall I tell you to what conclusion I'm drifting?" "Let's have it." "I should like to see Mrs. Lamb. You men know her, but I don't. She hasn't even come within range of my vision, and though I've the highest respect for you, as men, when it comes to your opinion of a woman, I don't think a man's opinion worth anything." "You're quite right--it isn't." This was Miss Johnson. "I used to have a high opinion of you." This was Mr. Staines. "You used to have!--that I should ever have been so belittled!" Miss Johnson turned disdainfully from Mr. Staines to Margaret. "What you say is perfectly correct, my dear, only a woman's opinion of a woman is of the slightest value." "The other day I heard a woman express her opinion of you in terms which, if I repeated them to you, might cause you to change your views." "Some women!" "I don't know that I go quite so far as Dollie, and there is something in what Mr. Staines hints, for, of course, there are women whose opinions of each other are merely so many libels." "Hear! hear!" "Do be still! Will somebody sit on Mr. Staines?" "But this appears to be a case in which a woman's opinion should be the only thing which ought to count--especially if I'm the woman; and, lest you accuse me of overweening conceit, let me hasten to explain. Mrs. Lamb is, I presume, a lady of beauty----"