Part 62 (1/2)

Could it be Lady Dorothy?

Lady Dorothy Neal was something of an enigma to Hector Strong. He was making more than a million pounds a year, and yet she did not want to marry him. Sometimes he wondered if the woman were quite sane. Yet, mad or sane, he loved her.

A secretary knocked and entered. He waited submissively for half-an-hour until the Proprietor looked up.

”Well?”

”Lady Dorothy Neal would like to see you for a moment, Sir.”

”Show her in.”

Lady Dorothy came in brightly.

”What nice-looking men you have here,” she said. ”Who is the one in the blue waistcoat? He has curly hair.”

”You didn't come to talk about _him_?” said Hector reproachfully.

”I didn't come to talk _to_ him really, but if you keep me waiting half-an-hour---- Why, what are you doing?”

Strong looked up from the note he was writing. The tender lines had gone from his face, and he had become the stern man of action again.

”I am giving instructions that the services of my commissionaire, hall-boy, and fifth secretary will no longer be required.”

”Don't do that,” pleaded Dorothy.

Strong tore up the note and turned to her. ”What do you want of me?” he asked.

She blushed and looked down. ”I--I have written a--a play,” she faltered.

He smiled indulgently. He did not write plays himself but he knew that other people did.

”When does it come off?” he asked.

”The manager says it will have to at the end of the week. It came _on_ a week ago.”

”Well,” he smiled, ”if people don't want to go, I can't make them.”