Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A FEW days later Miss King sailed for the Cape. She had contrived to discharge her debt to Mrs. Tubbs—probably by the sacrifice of something from her trunk: Oliphant did not hear how the payment was accomplished — and the widow deplored her departure on every occasion that she appeared with the remaining lodger's tea and toast. Oliphant missed the girl too—more than he would have believed was possible considering how brief a time she had lived here. He felt lonelier than ever now when he returned to the empty drawing-room after tramping the pavements in vain. It is one of the painful features of the theatrical life that the friends of to-day are so often strangers to-morrow; every tour sees intimacies formed among people who, after the Company is disbanded, may not encounter one another again for years. But Miss King had been met in an unusual way, and in this case his own environment remained the same. Its sameness emphasised her absence, and lent a pathos to it. It was about a week after their farewell thatsomething unlocked for happened — something that promised to alter the whole complexion of his affairs. A letter lay on his hot-water can one morning, and a letter was sufficiently rare with him for him to open it with eagerness. When he had read it his eyes sparkled, and the attic looked lovelier. London had a heart after all, and he could hear it beating. London was human ! The agent with whom he had left The Impostor wrote that he could place it for immediate production at a West End house. The percentage offered was very fair in view of the author's obscurity; and a hundred pounds, on account of fees, would be paid when the contract was signed. Oliphant was asked to reply at once, stating whether he was prepared to accept the terms. He stood still and laughed. Yes...