On the other hand, the young girls regretted that the great dramatist wasn’t going to sit beside them.  There is a strange glamour about these men and women who talk or write to us from over the footlights.  As Warrington disappeared into the hallway, the murmur and frequent laughter was resumed.

Mrs. Bennington was very glad to see him.  She laid aside her book and made room for him on the divan.  They talked about the weather, the changes that had taken place since the fall, a scrap of foreign travel of mutual interest, each hoping that the other would be first to broach the subject most vital to both.  Finally, Mrs. Bennington realized that she could fence no longer.

“It was very good of you to come.  I have so many things to ask you.”

“Yes.”

“My boy’s determination to marry has been very sudden.  I knew nothing till a month ago.  I love him so, and my whole heart hungers for one thing—­the assurance that he will be happy with the woman of his choice.”

“My dear Mrs. Bennington, Jack will marry a woman who is as loyal and honest as she is brilliant and beautiful.  Miss Challoner is a woman any family might be proud to claim.  She numbers among her friends many of the brilliant minds of the age; she compels their respect and admiration by her intellect and her generosity.  Oh, Jack is to be envied.  I can readily understand the deep-rooted antagonism the actress still finds among the laity.  It is a foolish prejudice.  I can point out many cases where the layman has married an actress and has been happy and contented with his lot.”

“But on the obverse side?” with a smile that was sad and dubious.

“Happiness is always in the minority of cases, in all walks of life.  Happiness depends wholly upon ourselves; environment has nothing to do with it.  Most of these theatrical marriages you have read about were mere business contracts.  John is in love.”

“But is he loved?”

“Miss Challoner has a very comfortable fortune of her own.  She would, in my opinion, be the last person in the world to marry for money or social position, the latter of which she already has.”

But she saw through his diplomacy.

“Perhaps she may desire a home?”

“That is probable; but it is quite evident to me that she wants John with it.”

“There are persons in town who will do their best to make her unhappy.”

“You will always find those persons; but I am confident Miss Challoner will prove a match for any of them.  There is no other woman in the world who knows better than she the value of well-applied flattery.”

“She is certainly a charming woman; it is impossible not to admit that frankly.  But you, who are familiar with the stage, know how unstable people of that sort are.  Suppose she tires of John?  It would break my heart.”

“Ah, all that will depend upon Jack.  Doubtless he knows the meaning of ‘to have and to hold.’  To hold any woman’s love, a man must make himself indispensable; he must be her partner in all things:  her comrade and husband when need be, her lover always.  There can be no going back to old haunts, so attractive to men; club life must become merely an incident.  Again, he must not be under her feet all the time.  Too much or too little will not do; it must be the happy between.”