‘I’m glad to hear it,’ Clara replied, very soberly.

‘You don’t look as if you cared much,’ rejoined the other, with a little irritation.

’What do you want me to do?  Am I to scream with joy because the greatest actress in the world has got her chance at last?’

There was bitterness in the irony.  Whatever their friendship in days gone by, these two were clearly not on the most amiable terms at present.  This was their first engagement in the same company, and it had needed but a week of association to put a jealousy and ill-feeling between them which proved fatal to such mutual kindness as they had previously cherished.  Grace, now no less than in her schooldays, was fond of patronising:  as the elder in years and in experience, she adopted a tone which Clara speedily resented.  To heighten the danger of a conflict between natures essentially incompatible, both were in a morbid and nervous state, consumed with discontent, sensitive to the most trifling injury, abandoned to a fierce egoism, which the course of their lives and the circumstances of their profession kept constantly inflamed.  Grace was of acrid and violent temper; when stung with words such as Clara was only too apt at using, she speedily lost command of herself and spoke, or even acted, frantically.  Except that she had not Clara’s sensibilities, her lot was the harder of the two; for she knew herself stricken with a malady which would hunt her unsparingly to the grave.  On her story I have no time to dwell; it was fall of wretchedness, which had caused her, about a year ago, to make an attempt at suicide.  A little generosity, and Clara might have helped to soothe the pains of one so much weaker than herself; but noble feeling was extinct in the girl, or so nearly extinct that a breath of petty rivalry could make her base, cruel, remorseless.

‘At all events I have got my chance !’ exclaimed Grace, with a harsh laugh.  ‘When you get yours, ask me to congratulate you.’

And she swept her skirts out of the room.  In a few minutes Clara put a stamp on her letter and went out to the post.  Her presence at the theatre would not be necessary for another two hours, but as the distance was slight, and nervousness would not let her remain at home, she walked on to make inquiry concerning Grace’s news.  Rain had just begun to fall, and with it descended the smut and grime that darkened above the houses; the pavement was speedily over-smeared with sticky mud, and passing vehicles flung splashes in every direction.  Odours of oil and shoddy, and all such things as characterised the town, grew more pungent under the heavy shower.  On reaching the stage-door, Clara found two or three of her companions just within; the sudden departure of Miss Walcott had become known to everyone, and at this moment Mr. Peel was holding a council, to which, as the doorkeeper testified, Miss Danver had been summoned.