Harriet Reeves was a famous actress but her great success made her very selfish and unkind to people. On the stage she always tried to attract the attention of the public only to herself, and after the performance she took no notice of her fellow actors. She always made promises but never kept them.

When she grew older she began to have heart attacks and had to retire.

Harriet had a lot of money and could afford to live quite comfortably, but by this time everybody in the theatre hated her and she felt quite lonely.

A year later on her birthday she did not receive a single flower or a telephone call. She was so upset that she had a bad heart attack. The doctor who examined her told her frankly that her chance of living was not too good and insisted that she should stay in bed as much as possible.

Harriet took the news bravely and for a couple of weeks followed the doctor’s instructions. But one day she could no longer be alone and called in her butler (= agent) to talk over a plan.

'I want to give a big party next Saturday night,' she said. 'I shall invite all people with whom 1 worked at the theatre. I don’t doubt that they will come, as my parties with good food, drinks and music were always a success. Now I want you to make all the arrangements.'

Knowing how ill she was the butler tried to persuade her not to do it but she wouldn’t listen to him. The same evening the old actress wrote invitations to the theatre people. She thought she would get them together and apologize for her behavior in the past. 'No doubt, I’ll make friends with some of them and my life will be different in future,' she went on thinking.

At 10 o’clock on Saturday night none of the guests turned up. When Harriet realized that nobody would come to the party she suddenly felt weak and tired.

'I can’t blame them for not coming. I myself used to break a lot of appointments,' she said to the butler and started for her bedroom.

In a moment he heard a heavy fall. When he opened the door of her bedroom he saw Harriet Reeves lying on the floor. She was dead.

A few days later, when the butler was looking through the papers in her desk he discovered a pack of invitations Harriet had forgotten to post.