"Well, I will tell you the promised good news!" he exclaimed. "I have at last secured you the wished-for position in my company." "Oh!" cried Geraldine, starting, and clasping her little hands convulsively together. But the exclamation was one of dismay rather than of joy. His quick ear detected it, but he pretended to misapprehend her, and continued: "I knew you would be delighted to hear it." "Ye-es," she faltered, weakly; then bracing herself to escape the engagement. "But--but--perhaps I ought not to go on the stage. Cissy is opposed to it." "Yes, I know--you told me that at first, but you said, also, that you did not care for her opinions--that you should do as you pleased." Geraldine could not contradict him. It was perfectly true. She sat speechless and embarrassed, feeling like a little bird caught in the fowler's net, while he continued, smoothly: "Don't be afraid of Miss Carroll's displeasure. It's only envy and jealousy." Geraldine, in her resentment against Cissy, had said this to him, too, and she comprehended that he was cleverly turning her own weapons against her now. She could only sit mute and miserable, with a forced smile that was more pathetic than tears. "'If I could leave this smile,' she said, 'And take a moan upon my mouth, And let my tears run smooth, It were the happier way,' she said." Clifford Standish continued: "The position offered you is not as good as I could wish, but I shall manage to get you a promotion soon. Our soubrette is going to leave, and you can take her place as soon as you wish." It was strange how tenaciously Geraldine's mind clung to the dread of Harry Hawthorne's disapproval. She did not wish to go on the stage now, and was eager for a loophole to escape. "Oh, I don't think I'd like to take a soubrette's place," she cried. "But last week you said you wouldn't mind it." "Oh, why do you keep throwing up things I said last week?" she burst out, pettishly. "Do you wish to forget them so soon, Miss Harding? Then you must be very fickle-minded, and I am sorry that I had that poor soubrette discharged for your sake!" "For my sake! Oh-h-oh!" "Why, certainly; because you were so anxious for a place, and I wished to please you above all things," tenderly; "and, of course, you know the manager dare not refuse anything reasonable that I ask, so I persuaded him to discharge poor Bettina." "Oh, let her keep the place, do! It was cruel to turn her off." "It is too late to replace her now. She has accepted an offer from a company that is going to remain in New York, and I shall have no end of trouble getting another girl to fill the place. I thought you wanted the chance so badly," reproachfully. Geraldine flushed crimson, and the tears she had been fighting back brimmed over in her eyes. "Oh, I have acted abominably," she sobbed; "but--but--a girl has a right to change her mind, hasn't she?" "Certainly, if she doesn't mind putting every one out," stiffly.