E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 25971-h.htm or 25971-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/9/7/25971/25971-h/25971-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/9/7/25971/25971-h.zip) Transcriber's note: [oe] represents the oe-ligature. THE CREATORS A Comedy by MAY SINCLAIR Author of "The Divine Fire," "The Helpmate," Etc. With Illustrations by Arthur I. Keller New York The Century Co. 1910 Copyright, 1909, 1910, by The Century Co. Published, October, 1910 [Illustration: "To the book!" she said. "To Nina Lempriere's book! You can drink now, George."] LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "To the book!" she said. "To Nina Lempriere's book! You can drink now, George." "How any one can be unkind to dumb animals," said Rose, musing. "Why do you talk about my heart?" Jane started at this sudden voice of her own thought. "And he," she said, "has still a chance if I fail you?" She had wrung it from him, the thing that six days ago he had come to her to say. It was Jinny who lay there, Jinny, his wife. "Ah," she cried, "try not to hate me!" "George," she said ... "I love you for defending him" She closed her eyes, "I'm quite happy" Jane stood in the doorway, quietly regarding them. THE CREATORS I Three times during dinner he had asked himself what, after all, was he there for? And at the end of it, as she rose, her eyes held him for the first time that evening, as if they said that he would see. She had put him as far from her as possible, at the foot of her table between two of the four preposterous celebrities whom she had asked him, George Tanqueray, to meet. Everything, except her eyes, had changed since he had last dined with Jane Holland, in the days when she was, if anything, more obscure than he. It was no longer she who presided at the feast, but her portrait by Gisborne, R.A. He had given most of his attention to the portrait.