WORLD'S END

Of course the mother hastened to the telephone and called her cousin. "What on earth is this, Esther? Has your stepson gone out of his mind? What a scandal - bringing this creature to the club and making a spectacle of himself before the world?"

Esther had made a strict resolve that if ever there was anything serious to be said to Lanny, it would be said by his father; so now she told Robbie what she had heard. She took the precaution of adding: "Better not mention me. Just say that you've heard it."

Robbie led his son to his study after dinner and said: "What's this about you and an actress, kid?"

Lanny was astonished by the speed with which rumor could operate, with the help of a universal telephone system. "Gosh!" said he. "I never met the girl till this afternoon, and I never heard of her till yesterday."

"Who told you about her?"

"Mrs. Chris Jessup."

"Oh, I see!" said the father. "Tell me what happened."

Lanny told, and it was interesting to compare notes and discover how a tale could grow in two or three hours. Robbie couldn't keep from laughing; then he said: "It would be better if you didn't have anything to do with this fight. You see, Molly Jessup and Esther have been in each other's hair of late; it had to do with the chairmanship of some committee or other."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Robbie! I had no idea of that."

"It's the kind of thing you get in for the moment you have anything to do with women's affairs. Just sort of lay off this Miss Pillwiggle, or whatever her name is, and let the women fight it out."

"It'll be rather awkward," said the young man. "I've expressed the opinion that she can act; and now people will be asking me about it, and what shall I say?"

"Well, of course, I wouldn't want you to violate your artistic conscience," replied the father, gravely. "But it seems to me that when you find you've spilled some fat into a hot fire, you're justified in stepping back a bit."

It was Lanny's turn to laugh. Then he said: "Strictly between you and me, Robbie, Adelaide is a stick."

"Yes, son; but there are many kinds of sticks, and she's an important one."

"A gold stick?"

"More than that - a mace of office, or perhaps a totem."

VI

The dramatics committee assembled, and Miss Gracyn Phillipson, alias Pillwiggle, showed how she would propose to enact the role of Puck, alias Robin Goodfellow. After the demonstration had been completed, the committee asked the advice of Mr. Walter Hayden, and this experienced director of the rich replied that it was his practice to leave such decisions to the members; he would give his professional opinion only upon formal request. This having been solemnly voted, Mr. Hayden said that Miss Adelaide Hitchcock was endowed with gifts to make a very lovely fairy with wings on her shoulders; whereas Miss Phillipson was an actress and something of a find, who might some day reflect credit upon her native city.

Adelaide declined to put wings on her shoulders, and went away in a huff, declaring that she would never darken the doors of the country club again. The rehearsals went forward, and every evening for the next ten Lanny watched Gracyn Phillipson manifest enraptured gaiety upon the dimly lighted stage of a woodland theater. Every evening he staggered about in mock confusion, seeking to capture her, and crying:

"Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear, If ever I thy face by daylight see."

He hardly knew her as a human being; he was under the spell of the play, a victim of enchantment, and she the fairy creature who poured into his eyes the magic juice which transformed the world. "But, my good lord, I wot not by what power! - "

The long-awaited evening came, and Gracyn was trembling so that she was pitiful. But the moment she danced onto the stage something took hold of her - "I am that merry wanderer of the night!" She swept through the part in triumph, and lifted an amateur performance into something unique. The audience gave her a polite ovation.

Then next day - and the spell was broken. Lanny was an apprentice salesman of armaments, and Gracyn was a poor girl whose mother kept a shop and lived over it. The members of the club had had an evening's diversion, the Red Cross had got a thousand dollars, Lanny had made some enemies and Gracyn some friends; at least so she thought, but she waited in vain for another invitation to the club, and the painful realization dawned upon her that it took more than talent to crash those golden gates.