'Give us all the sack!' Kate repeated. 'Yes,' said Dick, pursuing his own reflections 'I'm afraid it's so. It's a deuced bore, for we were very pleasant together. But I don't think I showed you the letter I got this morning. What's the matter, dear?' Pale as the petticoat at her feet, Kate stood with raised eyebrows and hands that twitched at the folds of her dress. 'Oh, Dick! what shall we do? We shall starve; we shan't have any place to go to!' 'Starve!' said Dick in astonishment. 'Not if I know it. We shall easily find something else to do. Besides, I don't care if he does break up the tour. I believe there's a good bit of coin to be made out of the pier theatre at Blackpool. I've been thinking of it for some time--with a good entertainment, you know; and then there's the drama Harding did for me--a version of Wilkie Collins's story--_The Yellow Mask_--devilish good it is, too. I was reading it the other day. We might take a company out with it. Let me see, whom could we get to play in it?' And, sitting over his portmanteau, the actor proceeded to cast the piece, commenting as he went along on the qualifications of the artists, and giving verbal sketches of the characters in the play. 'Beaumont would play Virginie first rate, you know--a strong, determined, wicked woman, who stops at nothing. I'd like to play the father; Mortimer would be very funny as the uncle. We'll have to write in something for you. You couldn't take the sympathetic little girl yet; you haven't had enough experience.'