``So, dear lady, keep your pearls.''
And he stood aside, opening the door for her. She
hesitated, dazed that she was leaving, with the feeling
of the conquered, a field on which, by all the precedents,
she ought to have been victor. She passed a troubled
night, debated whether to relate her queer experience to
Mrs. Belloc, decided for silence. It drafted into service
all her reserve of courage to walk into the theater the
next day and to appear on the stage among the assembled
company with her usual air. Ransdell greeted her
with his customary friendly courtesy and gave her his
attention, as always. By the time they had got through
the first act, in which her part was one of four of about
equal importance, she had recovered herself and was in
the way to forget the strange stage director's strange
attack and even stranger retreat. But the situation
changed with the second act, in which she was on the
stage all the time and had the whole burden. The act
as originally written had been less generous to her; but
Ransdell had taken one thing after another away from
the others and had given it to her.
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