FACING PAGE “I thought everybody knew me,” she said. “I’m Bonnie May” 8 “Good evening,” she said, as if she were addressing strangers 28 “You seem a little old for the part,” she suggested 54 A most extraordinary ancient man stood there watching her 82 “Enter the heroine!” was the child’s greeting 162 “They look as if they were quite happy--and didn’t care to be anything else” 180 “I don’t know what you’re getting at!” he exclaimed. “If you’ve got anything to say, why not say it and be done with it?” 196 “Dear child, do try to love me, won’t you?” 252 Thomason jerked his needle through a tough place and pulled it out to arm’s length 292 “Look at them!” she screamed. “Look! Look!” 318 She had put her arms about the trembling old lady’s neck, and for the moment they were both silent 352 Bonnie May _Only women understand children thoroughly, but if a mere man keeps very quiet and humbles himself properly, and refrains from talking down to his superiors, children will sometimes be good to him and let him see what they think about the world._ RUDYARD KIPLING. Bonnie May CHAPTER I THE INTRUSION OF AN ACTRESS Somewhere up in the gallery an usher opened a window. Instantly a shaft of sunlight pierced the dark interior of the theatre. It created a mote-filled aerial avenue across a vast space and came to an end in a balcony box. As if it were part of a general theatrical scheme it served as a search-light and brought into brilliant relief the upper part of a child’s body. There were blue eyes made lustrous by dark lashes; hair the color of goldenrod, which fell forward over one shoulder and formed a kind of radiant vehicle above for the support of a butterfly of blue ribbon. There were delicate red lips, slightly parted. The child leaned forward in her place and rested her elbows on the box railing. Her chin nestled in a little crotch, formed by her two hands. She would have resembled one of Rubens’s cherubs, if Rubens hadn’t conceived his cherubs on quite such a vulgar plane. It was so that Baron saw her during a brief interval. Then the window up in the gallery was closed, and darkness reigned in the theatre again. The child disappeared as Marguerite always disappears before Faust has obtained more than a seductive glimpse of her.