"Why do you insist upon thinking the author and heroine to be one person?"
"Just a fancy, I suppose. But the book is so intimate that I feel consciously, or otherwise, the woman has written herself into 'Francesca.' "
"You may be approaching an awful shock, my dear Jarvis, when you meet her."
"I think not."
"These author folk! She'll be a middle-aged dowd, mark my words."
He rose indignantly, and put the last sheets of the manuscript away. She watched him, smiling.
"Shall you go to New York to-morrow?"
"Yes, if I can get an appointment by wire. I am going to see about it now."
"I do hope he will be sensible enough to put it on right away."
"He told me to rush it. I think he means an immediate production."