within the theatre all went with the and precision of a military code and the one who lived the most lived the most thoroughly the life of a student was philip himself for days together did not see him except upon the stage and weeks passed without any sign that he was taking further notice of her or interest in her than to have given her the little part of the page in due course as he had promised a line or two a word here a salutation there were put in for her then she received instructions to one of the minor characters of the play this was the part of a young girl � a sort of rival of the heroine of the piece a dainty charming part to play which would be an enormous advance on the work she was doing at last her opportunity came owing to a ankle the principal could not appear and the under � heart and sword study otherwise took the part in her stead to it was as formidable as any ordinary first night afterwards became sir john and his lady were present and at least half a dozen whom he had asked as a personal favour to attend the performance and came up from on purpose and mary about her giving her hints and encouraging her in every way that was possible to herself the result seemed nothing short of hideous she had studied the part so diligently had watched her principal so closely that she seemed unable to get inside the character try as she would but when it was over mary whispered to her you ll do and patted her on the shoulder with a word of encouragement the morning brought her a note from sir john asking her to go to tea at place the following afternoon and one of the morning papers spoke of her as miss a young of great freshness and great distinction of style another paper spoke of her as a new discovery of mr s and of course told her that she waa too for words and that was the beginning of s career she played the part nightly and at the various es for nearly a month as the ankle which was the cause of her chance continued extremely troublesome and difficult to cure then miss came to her own again and s candle was promptly put out philip said miss to when was back at the theatre once more what are you going to do for little now nothing nothing she echoed well i don t see that i can do i have given her a very good chance and most her ankle just at the nick of time miss but you cannot expect her to continue an invalid just to oblige a new comer of course not philip how tiresome you are you are not going to put the child back to page s work i can t do that at least it would be but she can continue the work � that is heart breaking business said miss she must wait said in a tone of decision she has had a better chance than most girls she has done brilliantly and i am very well pleased with her but no theatre can be run solely for the benefit of the who want chances for a week or two it seemed as if there was practically nothing for but � and the drawing of three guineas a week then she received an offer from another manager for the run of a piece just about to be produced and mr was pleased to lend her as the phrase goes for the engagement s new manager was called harry a man of different from philip a man who had no ideas about high art one who was himself a brilliant and ran his theatre purely as a place of amusement and for the purpose of making money the play itself was the work of a modern one walter half comedy half domestic drama he had been one of those to see during the time she had played s part at the and he had marked the exquisite fi of her voice and manner her airy charm and grace and the general of her style the part assigned to her was as fresh and as herself it was as he said a big risk to give so prominent a part to so young an but the end fully justified his choice my dear child he said when he met her for the first time at you are to io l heart and sword your only chance of succeeding is to do precisely what i tell you while you are in if i had wanted somebody to create the part i would have chosen she might have done great things with it but she is just a little too studied she knows just too much to give me precisely what i want i want the smell of the new hay to across the to the public i want my to be as simple and as sweet as under a i want her to be as as the and which we gather in the meadows in the early morning if you can be all that � that is to say if you can be yourself � you will have the greatest success that any girl has had upon the stage within my recollection it is easy enough to play heavy parts it is easy enough to and scream and like a dog as mrs john is doing every night at the but to give a real fresh dainty of sweet and charming so that every man will feel my wife was like that once and my daughter will be like that to morrow is the most difficult task which can be set to any young now will you do your best she turned a 