“You need have no fear,” he said to her the moment he had looked at John Martin, “he is sound asleep, and, when he awakes, the crisis will be past.  To-morrow, he may go out for a bit, and, in a week, he will be himself again.  Only you must take care that he does not use his brain too much.”

Gladys could hardly restrain her delight.  She felt pleased with everything and everybody; and her greeting of Shiel, some two hours later, at the theatre, almost turned his brain.  In fact it was owing to this pleasant surprise, that he made one or two stupid mistakes in his performance, and was sharply pulled back to earth by the ironic laughter of the audience.  When the entertainment was over, and he was preparing to accompany Gladys as usual to her motor, the thought of her sparkling eyes and animated features again overcame him.

“What shall you advise your father to do?” he asked.

“I think he ought to lose no time in getting a partner,” Gladys replied, “some one who can attend to the business side of the concern for him.  It is essential he should not be worried with figures.”

“I suppose my services won’t be required much longer?” Shiel said, speaking with rather an effort.

“Of course I can’t answer for my father,” Gladys replied, “but I should imagine he would be only too glad to employ you.  The only thing is the salary.  You can’t live on air, you know, and with the poor attendances he gets now, I don’t see how he can afford to pay much.”

“I would work for very little,” Shiel said.  “I should be awfully sorry to give up now.  I wonder if you would miss me at all?”

“Of course I should!” Gladys retorted.  “You have behaved admirably, and I am most grateful to you.”

“You needn’t be grateful to me.  I have never enjoyed anything half so much as I have trying to help you.  I am poor, penniless in fact, since my uncle left me nothing, but supposing—­supposing I were to get some lucrative post, do you think—­do you think there would ever be any possibility of—­”

“Of what?”

“Of your caring for me!  I am terribly in love with you.”

“I fear I must have given you encouragement,” Gladys said.  “I’m awfully sorry.  You see I never thought of this, and I don’t know what to say to you.”

“Won’t you give me a chance, just a chance?”

“But my father would never hear of it.  Unfortunately he seems to be prejudiced against you.  Won’t you wait a while, and then, if you are still in the same mind, speak to me again in—­say—­a year.  By that time you will, no doubt, have made some sort of a position for yourself.”

“And in the meanwhile you will get engaged to some one else,” Shiel exclaimed.

“I don’t think I shall,” Gladys said.  “Of course, I meet crowds of men, but you see I am not the marrying sort.”

“Do you think you would care for me just a bit?” Shiel asked eagerly.