"Oh, no, something quite in your line. You know, Lottie, I always said you would turn out a great actress."
"You have said so a dozen of times," she said, "but whether you meant it——"
"I was quite serious, I assure you," he responded, "and in proof of my sincerity I am going to ask you to play a very difficult part."
"Oh, you've written a play!" she said coolly; "well, that's more in your line. And when are you going to produce it? And I'm to have a big part, am I, or is it a little one as usual? The authors always try and persuade you when they are giving you a part with about five lines in it, that it's the most important in the cast."
"I haven't written a play, and yet I have, so to speak," he said. "And you have the best part, far and away, Lottie. By the way, I have a piece of news for you. Lord Blair is going to be married!"
He burst it upon her purposely to see how she would like it, and for a moment Lottie turned crimson and then white, and her eyes blazed; then the actress asserted herself over the mere woman, and taking up another cigarette she lit it before she gave vent to a cool——
"Oh, really!"
But Austin Ambrose had seen the deep red and the quick flash of the eyes and was not taken in by the nonchalant "Oh, really!"
"Yes," he said; "but it is a profound secret at present."
"And so you want me to tell everybody! I understand."