“I recall you said once it would be a poor love which should interfere with the ideals of another.”

“Yes, I remember.  How long ago that seems, and what a change has since come over my conceptions of the power of love!  I believe it still, yet in so different a way.  Now I would surrender gladly all ambition, all dream of worldly success, merely to fee alone with the man I love, and bring him happiness.  That—­that is all I want; it is everything.”

“And some day it shall be yours,” he declared stoutly.  “Some day when you comprehend that divorce is not always the evil that some delight to proclaim it; some day when you realize that it must be a far greater sin to wreck irretrievably your own life for a brute than to break those man-made bonds which bind you to him.  It cannot be long until you learn this, for all nature condemns so unholy an alliance.  Until then let it be the stage; only I ask you to strive for the very best it offers.  Have confidence in yourself, little girl, in your ability, your power, your spark of genius touched by suffering.  Every hour you pass now in hideous, misshapen melodrama is worse than wasted.  You have that within you well worthy of better setting, nobler environment, and you wrong yourself to remain content with less.  You are mine now wherever you go, whatever triumphs you win; mine in spite of the law, because I possess your heart.  I should doubt myself far sooner than ever question your loyalty.  I can lend you to the stage for a while—­until I come for you in that glad hour when your lips shall bid me—­but in the meantime I want you to be true to yourself, to the spirit of art within you.  I want you to accomplish the highest purposes of your dreams; to interpret that in life which is worthy of interpretation.”

“You believe I can?”

“I know you can.  Never from that first night, when I stood in the wings and watched, have I ever questioned the possibilities of your future.  You have art, emotion, depth of true feeling, application, a clear understanding of character—­all that ever made any actress great.  I love you, Beth; yet mine is a love too unselfish not to tell you this truth and stand aside rather than block your future.”

She lifted her eyes to him, now cleared of their tears, and shining with eagerness.

“I will do all you say,” she said earnestly, “do it because I love you.  It shall not be for the people, the applause, the glitter and display, but alone for you.  Whenever a triumph comes to me, I shall meet it whispering your name in my heart, knowing that you rejoice because I am proving worthy of your faith.  It will be as if we worked together; the memory must help to make us both strong.”

He bent lower, drew her closer to him, and held her thus in silence.

“Yes,” he spoke at last, as though in thought, “I shall try to remember and be patient, so long as you feel it must be so.”