QUEEN COPUETUA AND THE BEGGAR- MAN. 
179 
for nothing, for I was sorry for you and you 
hadn’t earned it.” 
“ Well, I felt ashamed myself. That’s 
why I thought — why I thought a little 
comfort and help and food might help you 
—I wish it weren’t drink with you.” 
“ It isn’t — I lied, too. It was just luck 
with me.” 
“ How ? ” 
“ Chance took me to the Embankment,” 
he said, enigmatically. 
“ Ah, well ! You lied, too — so we’re quits, 
then.” 
“ We can never be that — I owe you too 
much.” 
She fetched a dainty silver cigarette-box 
and took two cigarettes from it. He lit one 
and inhaled the smoke gratefully. She 
smoked also. 
“ It isn’t too late ? ” she asked. 
“ Too late for what ? ” 
“ Too late to start again,” she said, softly, 
watching the blue curls of the cigarette 
smoke. 
“ Oh,” he said, uneasily, “ I don’t know. 
You make me feel ashamed of myself.” 
“ I should like to help you. ITow can I ? ” 
“ You’ve done all you can. You have 
helped.” There was something ironic in his 
voice. “ I shall be able to show you to- 
morrow.” 
“ I wish you wouldn’t talk like that,” she 
said. 
“ Like what ? ” 
“ There’s a mocking note in your voice. 
1 don’t understand it. I wish I knew your 
history. I’m certain you’re not used to this 
life.” 
“ Now, that’s really clever of you. But as 
for my own life, there’s nothing to tell — it’s 
a record of failure, and such records are best 
left untold.” 
The clock chimed. “ I must be going,” he 
said, rising, and buttoning up his thin coat,. 
“ But where ? Where can you go to? ” 
she asked. 
“Oh, anyone can see you do not belong 
to the seamy side. Why, to a doss-house, 
of course.” 
She opened a little chain-purse woven in 
platinum and gold, and took out two 
sovereigns. 
He drew himself up proudly for a moment. 
“ Madam ! ” he said, and then again that 
queer, ironic smile overcame him, and he 
almost cringed to her. “ You are very kind.” 
He took the hand that proffered him the 
money, and with a sudden impulse kissed it. 
She drew it away shamefacedly. 
Vol. xlvi.— 23. 
“ You are very kind,” he murmured, 
“ to a poor devil of a tramp.” 
lie fumbled at his hat and blundered 
towards the door. 
III. 
The next day Miss Marling breakfasted 
in her pink room as usual at eleven 
o’clock, with the memory of her night’s 
adventure fresh in her mind. She thought 
over some plan of assisting the unfortunate 
young man. She might see Graham, the 
manager of the theatre, and get him to give 
the man a job of some sort — door-keeper, or 
scene-shifter, perhaps. 
Later she went down to the theatre for 
the rehearsal of the new play. On her way 
there her attention was caught by a pink 
poster of the A / ter noon. It flamed before 
her with an odd significance : — 
“ Famous 
Actress’s 
Midnight 
Embankment 
Adventure.” 
The thing struck her uncannily. She had 
as yet seen nobody to whom she could tell 
the story of the night before. It came as 
a shock to her. Well, well, these news- 
papers are very enterprising, but how on 
earth could the Afternoon have heard of 
the story ? Surely Nichols , the porter, was not 
in league with the newspapers ? She bought 
the paper, and there it was — a whole column 
of it. The headings told her the worst : — 
“ Actress and Tramp. 
Miss Ivy Marling Plays the Good Fairy 
at Midnight. 
Embankment Romance.” 
She did not know whether to be pleased 
or annoyed, until she read it, and then she 
found that the writer had woven a charming 
romance out of it. And the writer had said 
such sweet things about her, and had written 
it in such a way that much of the detail 
could only be understood by her and the 
tramp — the two persons who alone knew of 
it. It was written with such intimate know- 
ledge that it puzzled her. It was a fairy 
story in real life. There were wonderful 
human touches here and there, and as she 
read the parts about herself her cars burnt 
and prickled. 
And yet, in spite of all its pretty writing, 
an undercurrent of annoyance struggled 
beneath her feelings. Of course, she w f as 
an actress, with an actress’s human love of 
publicity, but somehow or other this affair 
had been genuine. There really had been no 
