“My God!  My God!” Leontine was repeating.  “Why doesn’t somebody come?”

Now that his brain had cleared, and he knew what hand had smitten him, and why, Phillips was by far the calmest of the four.  He saw the knife at his feet and smiled, for no steel could rob him of that gladness which was pulsing through his veins.  He was still smiling when he stooped and picked up the weapon.  He arose, lifting Norma to her feet; then his hand slid down and sought hers.

“You needn’t worry,” he said to Francis.  “You see—­this is the new dagger I got for the end of the act.”

He held it out in his open palm for all of them to see, and they noted that it was strangely shortened—­that the point of the sliding blade was barely exposed beneath the hilt.

Francis wiped his wet face, then shuddered and cursed weakly with relief, meanwhile groping at the prompter’s table for support.  “Sold!  A prop knife!” he cried.

“You—­you’re not really—­” Norma swayed forward with eyes closed.

Leontine laughed.

“By God!  I meant it,” the star exclaimed, uncertainly.  “You can’t deny—­” He gasped and tugged at his collar.

“I believe there is nothing to deny,” the author said, quietly.  He looked first at his wife, then at his enemy, and then down at the quivering, white face upturned to his.  “There is nothing to deny, is there?” he inquired of Norma.

“Nothing!” she said.  “I—­I’m glad to know the truth, that’s all.”

Francis glared first at one, then at the other, and as he did so he began to realize the full cost of his action.  When it came home to him in terms of dollars and cents, he showed his true character by stammering: 

“I—­I made a frightful mistake.  I’m—­not myself; really, I’m not.  It was your wife’s fault.”  In a panic he ran on, unmindful of Leontine’s scorn.  “She did it, Mr. Phillips.  She gave me the knife.  She whispered things—­she made me—­I—­I’m very sorry—­Mr. Phillips, and I’ll play the part the way you want it.  I will, indeed.”

Leontine met her husband’s look defiantly; hence it was as much to her as to the cringing actor that the playwright said: 

“Your salary will go on as usual, under your contract, Mr. Francis—­that is, until the management supplies you with a new play; but I’m the real John Danton, and I shall play him tonight and henceforth.”

“Then, I’m—­discharged?  Norma—­d’you hear that?  We’re canceled.  Fired!”

“No, Miss Berwynd’s name will go up in lights as the star, if she cares to stay,” said Phillips.  “Do you wish to remain?” He looked down at the woman, and she nodded.

“Yes, oh yes!” she said.  “I must stay.  I daren’t go back.”  That hunted look leaped into her eyes again, and Phillips recognized it now as fear, the abject physical terror of the weaker animal.  “I want to go—­forward—­not backward, if there is any way.”

“I’ll show you the way,” he told her, gently.  “We’ll find it together.”