Charmington then sat down and wrote a polite note, in which he informed Mr. Breitmann that he desired a short interview with him on a matter of vital importance to them both. A second half-crown was administered to the page boy, and in a few moments the door of the strangers' room was violently flung open, and Mr. Breitmann himself suddenly burst in. Breitmann never entered a room, he always burst in. The suddenness of his entry startled Charmington considerably; he was still more astonished at the tone in which Breitmann addressed him. That gentleman carried poor Jack's note in his hand. "What is your vital business, sir? I have no vital business with you." "My wife wrote to you, Mr. Breitmann, yesterday, asking you to call on her." This only seemed to exasperate Mr. Breitmann still more. "I have no business with your wife. I am not a ladies' man. Why should I call on your wife when I have no business? What do you mean by coming here and bullying me because I won't call on your wife?" "My wife is a very prominent person, Mr. Breitmann." "I have seen your wife, sir, and if you wish, I will tell you what I think of her." He hardly gave poor little Charmington time to assent to this proposition, when he continued, his voice changing from a shout to a scream: "Sir, your wife is a fool!" Then he proceeded to crack his fingers violently, one after another. "Now, sir," he continued, "I wish you good-morning; my time is fully occupied in my businesses and in protecting my copyrights." He was about to rush from the room. "It's about that I wanted to see you," said Jack. "Have you been infringing my copyrights then?" replied the other in a terrible voice. "No, I want to buy one," said Charmington. "Ah," replied Breitmann, in a calmer tone, "then you _have_ business. Sit down. What do you want to buy?" "Well, I don't exactly know," replied Charmington. "Well, tell me how much you want to spend, five thousand--ten thousand?" And then they went to business. It was explained to Mr. Breitmann that Mrs. Charmington was anxious to purchase one of his new and original dramas, one of those extraordinary combinations of melodramatic impossibility, which however appeal, and not in vain, to the eye and to the heart, which never fail to fill the pockets of their fortunate purchasers, and which have rendered the name of Breitmann a household word.