"God knows what I am!" said Carter Hazzard, mopping his forehead, and appreciative of Miss Page's beauty and the maturer charms of Miss Girard. "I'm bell-hop for the whole crowd. My sister plays Thomasine, her steady is Tweenwayes, and my Mother's a director in the hospital. Fix it up to suit yourselves; you'll see that I'm every one's goat." Both the girls laughed, and Artheris said: "I am glad you came in, for Miss Page is the young lady of whom I spoke to you. Unfortunately, it seems that she has just promised to sign a contract with the Alcazar people." "Oh, shucks! Can't you put it off until after the fifteenth?" asked Mr. Hazzard in alarm. "Too much money in it," Connie said, shaking her head. "Well--well, we expected to--to pay, of course," Carter said, embarrassed at this crudeness. And Julia, blushing furiously, muttered, "Oh--it wasn't the _pay_!" "In a word, Miss Page's price is twenty-five dollars a night," said Artheris. "Could your people pay it?" "Why--why, I suppose we could," Hazzard said uncomfortably. "It's--it's for a charity, you know," he ended weakly. "Well, Miss Page's usual price is fifty; she's already reduced it half!" Connie said briskly. Julia was now bitterly ashamed of her manager and her friend; her face was burning. "I'll do it, of course," she promised. "And we'll arrange the terms afterward!" "Good work!" said Hazzard gayly. In a few moments, when they all went out to look at the stage, he dropped behind the others and began to walk beside her. "You're sure you're old enough to be on the stage, Miss Page; no Gerry Society scandal at the last minute?" he asked banteringly. "You look about twelve!" Julia flashed him an oblique look. "The idea! I'm nearly seventeen!" she said, with an uncertain little laugh. His ardent eyes embarrassed her. "Honest?" said Carter Hazzard, in a low, caressing tone. He laid his fingers on her arm. "What's your hurry?" he asked. "We ought to keep with the others," Julia stammered, scarlet cheeked but half laughing. At the same instant his inclination to cut across her path brought her to a full stop. She backed against a heavily tasselled and upholstered old armchair that chanced to be standing in the wings, and sitting down on one of its high arms, looked straight up into his eyes. The others had gone on; they were alone in the draughty wings. "Why ought we?" said Hazzard, still in a low voice full of significance, his eyes on her shoulder, where he straightened a ruffle that was caught under a chain of beads. "If you like me and I like you, why shouldn't we have a little talk?" However young she might appear, the inanities of a flirtation were a familiar field to Julia. She gave him a demure and unsmiling glance from between curled lashes, and said: "What would you like to talk about?"