"She ought to be doin' _Ophelia_ on Broadway," she introduced me handsomely; "wouldn't that get you!" "I saw you with the Hardings last year," Griffin assented, almost as though I might think it a liberty. "Where are you playing now?" He had the stamp of too many reverses on his face not to estimate mine at its proper worth. He had fine instincts too, for as soon as I told him that I was out of an engagement that season, he put himself on record quite simply. "My turn goes off next week--I'm trying to get Cline to put it on the circuit." When we came out of the office together he fell into step with me. One of the young women ahead of us made the shape of a bubble with her hands and blew it from her. "Pouff" she said. "There goes another of my chances." She laughed with a fine courage. "They all go through with it," Griffin affirmed. "There's Eversley----" I have forgotten which of the well-known incidents he related. "Eversley told me I might come to it. What made you think of him?" I demanded. "I saw his name in the paper; he's to play here this winter. He's a wonder." "He said wonderful things to me once." I had just recalled them. "They'll come true then. Eversley never makes a mistake. Why, I remember once----" He broke off as though he had changed his mind about telling me. I was wondering if I couldn't get rid of him by stopping in at Sarah's, when he broke out again suddenly. "To think of you being out of an engagement and a girl like Cecelia Brown--yes, I know her name is Brown, Cissy Brown of Milwaukee----" "I've always suspected it," I admitted, "but it is her looks of course, and the clothes; Cecelia has lovely clothes." "Well, so could you if...." He checked himself. "I don't mean to say anything against a lady...." "I've always suspected that, too," I admitted, "but one doesn't like to say it." "Well, you know what she gets--thirty-five a week. A girl doesn't wear diamond sunbursts on that." "Mr. Griffin, I wish you'd tell me what sort of man it is that gives diamond sunbursts to Variety girls: I've never seen any of them." "You have probably, but you don't know it. You meet their wives in society." "Henry Mills." I don't know what made me say it; the image of him came tripping along the surface of my mind and slid off my tongue without having more than momentarily perched there. "Is he in business downtown, and has he got a perfectly proper family and too many dinners under his vest?" "Mr. Mills's home life is ideal; but I didn't mean----" "Neither did I, but that's the type. They mostly have ideal families, but they couldn't live up to them if they didn't have Cecelia Brunes on the side.... I beg your pardon."