Geraldine saw before her an elegant-looking gentleman--tall, broad-shouldered, graceful, with a clean-shaven face, clear-cut features, fair, clustering locks, and large, glittering, light-blue eyes, keen and clear as points of steel in their direct gaze, but with something unpleasant somehow in their admiring expression that made the pretty salesgirl drop her eyes bashfully, as he continued, easily: "I have lost a bet of a box of gloves to a lady, and would like you to assist me in selecting some pretty ones to pay the debt." "What size?" she asked, as she began pulling down the boxes. "Sixes," he replied, and added: "She is a gay and pretty young girl--an actress." "An actress!" Geraldine sighed, enviously, then smothered the sigh by saying, carelessly: "We both wear the same size of glove." "Ah!" and the customer gazed admiringly at the slender, dimpled white hands sorting out the gloves, then continued: "And I am an actor, and it pleases me to tell you that I am Clifford Standish, the leading man in 'Hearts and Homes,' the society play you are going to see to-night." He laid his elegantly engraved card before her, and she started with surprise and pleasure, faltering, eagerly: "I--I am proud to know you--but how did you guess I was going to the theatre to-night?" "I beg your pardon for listening, but I heard you and your chum talking about it while I stood at the counter waiting for you to notice me." "Oh, did I keep you waiting? I am very sorry; and if the floor-walker had observed my inattention, I should have been scolded." Clifford Standish drank in with keen delight the music of her voice, and thrilled with rapture at her rare beauty, so he answered, gallantly: "He did not see you, and I was in no hurry, for it pleased me just to stand there and watch you. I was watching your spirited face and gestures and thinking that you would make a clever actress. You belong to an amateur dramatic society, do you not?" "Oh, yes, and I enjoy it so much. It is the dream of my life to be an actress!" exclaimed Geraldine, impulsively, her eager, brown eyes shining like stars. Her beauty thrilled his blood like a draught of rare old wine, and he felt that here was the love of his life, for no woman had ever touched his heart as maddeningly as this one; so he answered, almost as passionately, in a swift, overmastering impulse to draw her within the circle of his life: "A dream that may easily become a reality. Will you let me help you to become an actress? I am almost sure that I can secure you a position in my company." "Oh, I would be so grateful," smiled Geraldine, her cheeks glowing crimson with joy. "Then you will permit me to call on you and talk it over? Let me see--you will be at home this evening at seven o'clock, will you not? May I come for half an hour at that time?" "If you please," she answered, eagerly, scribbling her address on the back of his card.