Sir Henry winced. In his heart he thoroughly despised Charles Mann. He drank a glass of champagne and said nervously,-- 'I'm glad we're not going to quarrel.... Forgive me.' 'You have spoiled it all for me,' she said. 'Everything is spoiled.' She clenched her fists, and her eyes blazed fury at him. 'How dare you treat me as a woman when I had never revealed myself to you? Isn't that where a man should have some honour? ... You must understand me if I am to remain in the theatre. If a woman reveals herself to a man, then she is responsible. She has nothing to say if--I don't think you understand.' 'No.' And indeed she might have been talking Greek to him. The insulted woman he knew, the virtuous woman he knew, the fraudulent coquette he knew, the extravagant self-esteem of women he knew, but never before had he met a woman who was simple and sincere, who could brush aside all save essentials and talk to him as a man might have done, with detachment from the thing that had happened. 'If you think I'm a blackguard, why don't you say so? Why don't you hit me?' 'I don't think you are anything of the kind. I think you have been spoiled and that everything has been too easy for you.... I'm hurt because I thought you wanted Charles and me for the theatre and not for yourself.' '_L'etat c'est moi_,' smiled Sir Henry. 'I am the theatre.... All the immense machinery is my creation. My brain here is the power that keeps it going. If I were to die to-morrow there would be four walls and Mr Gillies.... Do you think he could do anything with it? Could Charles Mann? Could you?' 'Yes,' said Clara, and he laughed. He had never been in such entrancing company. If she did not want his love-making--well and good. At least she gave him the benefit of her frankness and he needed no pose with her. He was glad she was going to be a sensible girl.... She might alter her mind and every day only made her more adorable. 'Sit down and have some chocolates.' He spoke to her as though she were a child and like a child she obeyed him, for she was alarmed that he should exert his capricious prerogative and throw over _The Tempest_ at the last moment. 'What would you do with the theatre?' 'I should dismiss Mr Gillies.' 'An excellent man of business.' 'For stocks and shares or boots, but not for art.' 'He's a steadying influence.' 'Art is steady enough, if it is art.' 'My _dear_ child!' 'If you don't know that then you are not an artist.' 'Oh! Would you call Charles Mann steady?' 'I should think of the play first and last.' 'There's no one to write them.' 'I should scour the country for imaginative people and make them think in terms of the theatre. Besides, there are people!' 'Oh!' 'Yes. There are people who love the drama so much that they can't go near the theatre.'