As one result of her interview with Marbridge, Joan returned to her quarters in a state of thoughtfulness which was responsible not only for her forgetting the appointment with Matthias and the risk she ran of encountering Quard at every corner, but also for her unquestioning acceptance of Hattie\'s absence from the flat in the face of her expressed determination not to go out that afternoon.

Hattie, however, was nothing loath to explain her change of mind when she blew in cheerfully shortly before dinner-time.

"Hello!" she exclaimed, tossing her hat one way and her parasol another. "Did you miss me?"

Joan looked up blankly from the depths of her musing. "No," she said dully. "Why?"

"Well, you went off half-peeved because I wouldn\'t go trapesing with you—and then I went out after all."

"Oh—I\'d forgotten," Joan admitted without much interest.

"Well, I didn\'t mean to go out, but Billy Emerson sent me a tip and ... I bet you can\'t guess who I\'ve seen."

Joan shook her head.

"Arlington!"

"Arlington!" Joan exclaimed.

"Well, and why not?"

"Nothing—only I thought you weren\'t looking for anything in musical shows."

"No more am I, and it wasn\'t a musical show I went to see him about. Billy sent me a card of introduction with the tip, and Arlington saw me and—well, I guess it\'s just about settled. I\'m to understudy Nella Cardrow in \'Mrs. Mixer.\' Arlington wouldn\'t promise, but told me to come in Saturday morning, and the understanding is he\'ll have contracts ready to sign then. I do believe my luck\'s turned at last!"

"But," Joan argued, perplexed, "I don\'t understand.... Of course, it\'s fine to get the job, and all that—and I\'m awf\'ly glad for you, Hattie—but you act as excited as if it was the title r?le you expected to play."

"Maybe I do," Hattie retorted. "That\'s what an understudy\'s for, isn\'t it—to play the star part in case of an emergency?"

"Yes, but—"

"Anyhow, I don\'t mind telling you that\'s what I\'m looking forward to."

"You mean you think Mrs. Cardrow—?"

"Now don\'t you ask me any questions; I can\'t tell you what I think; it\'s a secret." Having made this statement, Hattie sat down on the edge of the bed, lighted a cigarette, vacillated one second, and proceeded to divulge the secret: "You see, I called around to thank Billy Emerson, after my talk with Arlington, and he told me the whole story in confidence. Nobody\'s to know it yet, so you mustn\'t breathe a word to anybody; but the thing\'s all fixed, and Nella Cardrow\'s never going to play \'Mrs. Mixer\' before a Broadway audience. She couldn\'t play it anyhow—\'s just a plain-boiled dub—never did anything before she persuaded Marbridge to put her on in this show. It\'s his money that\'s behind it, mostly—Arlington\'s too wise to risk much on an uncertain proposition like the Cardrow. Marbridge just hides behind Arlington."

"What for?"

"Well, I guess he figures home would be none the happier if Friend Wife knew he was footing the bills for Nella Cardrow\'s show. He and Cardrow, Billy Emerson says, are just about as friendly as the law allows—and that isn\'t all."

"But," Joan persisted stupidly, "if that\'s the case, I don\'t see what makes you think he\'ll throw her down to give you the part—"

"If they ever caught anybody on Broadway as innocent as you pretend to be," Hattie commented with a scorn for grammar as deep as for Joan\'s obtuseness—"they\'d arrest \'em, that\'s all! Who ever told you Marbridge was the kind of a guy to stick to a woman forever—not to say when she\'s losing money for him? Billy Emerson saw the show when they put it on up in Buffalo, a while ago, and he says the play\'s a wonder but Cardrow can\'t even look the part, much less act it. He says if they ever let her loose on the stage of a Broadway theatre—well, Marbridge and Arlington can just kiss their investment a fond farewell. For reasons of his own, Marbridge isn\'t ready to break with Cardrow yet, but he knows he\'s got a big success on his hands in this \'Mrs. Mixer\' with her out of it. So they\'re going right ahead, just as if she was to be the star, but when the show opens it\'ll be little Miss Understudy who\'ll do all the acting."

The actress tossed aside her cigarette and bent forward, regarding Joan with mock solicitude.

"Does it begin to penetrate, dearie?"

"It sounds to me like a pretty mean trick to play on Mrs. Cardrow," Joan suggested.

"Don\'t you worry about her. She\'ll survive, all right. And anyhow, when you\'ve been as long in this game as I have, you\'ll realize that the motto of the profession is \'Everybody for himself and the devil take the hindermost\'! I\'ve waited seven years for this chance, and I\'m not going to let it get past me through any sentimental considerations, not if I know myself. And you\'d do just the same thing in my place, too."

"I don\'t see what right you\'ve got to say that—"

"Then you don\'t know yourself as well as I know you," Hattie laughed. ............