And then Gray came trailing back into the wings, and the shrieking and thumping and whistling out in front just went on--and on--and on--and on. Um! I just listened and loved it--every thump of it. And I stood there like a demure little kitten; or more like Mag Monahan after she'd had a good licking, and was good and quiet. And I never so much as budged till Obermuller said: "Well, Nance, you have earned it. The gall of you! But it only proves that Fred Obermuller never yet bought a gold brick. Only, let me in on your racket next time. There, go on--take it. It's yours." Oh, to have Fred Obermuller say things like that to you! He gave me a bit of a push. 'Twas just a love-pat. I stumbled out on to the stage. VII. And that's why, Marguerite de Monahan, I want you to buy in with the madam here. Let 'em keep on calling it Troyon's as much as they want, but you're to be a partner on the money I'll give you. If this fairy story lasts, it'll be your own, Mag--a sort of commission you get on my take-off of you. But if anything happens to the world--if it should go crazy, or get sane, and not love Nancy Olden any more, why, here'll be a place for me, too. Does it look that way? Divil a bit, you croaker! It looks--it looks--listen and I'll tell you how it looks. It looks as though Gray and the great Gray rose diamond and the three Charities had all become a bit of background for Nance Olden to play upon. It looks as though the audience likes the sound of my voice as much almost as I do myself; anyway, as much as it does the sight of me. It looks as though the press, if you please, had discovered a new stage star, for down comes a little reporter to interview me--me, Nancy Olden! Think of that, Mag! I receive him all in my Charity rig, and in Obermuller's office, and he asks me silly questions and I tell him a lot of nonsense, but some truths, too, about the Cruelty. Fancy, he didn't know what the Cruelty was! S. P. C. C., he calls it. And all the time we talked a long-haired German artist he had brought with him was sketching Nance Olden in different poses. Isn't that the limit? What d'ye think Tom Dorgan'd say to see half a page of Nancy Olden in the X-Ray? Wouldn't his eyes pop? Poor old Tom! ... No danger--they won't let him have the papers.... My old Tommy! What is it, Mag? Oh, what was I saying? Yes--yes, how it looks. Well, it looks as though the Trust--yes, the big and mighty T. T.--short for Theatrical Trust, you innocent--had heard of that same Nance Olden you read about in the papers. For one night last week, when I'd just come of and the house was yelling and shouting behind me, Obermuller meets me in the wings and trots me of to his private office. "What for?" I asked him on the way. "You'll find out in a minute. Come on."