Here Conolly, who had been putting on his overcoat, picked the program deftly from his sister’s fingers, and left the room.  She, after damning him very heartily, returned to the glass, and continued dressing, taking her tea at intervals until she was ready to go out, when she sent for a cab, and bade the driver convey her to the Bijou Theatre, Soho.

Conolly, on arriving at the Wandsworth Town Hall, was directed to a committee room, which served as green-room on this occasion.  He was greeted by a clean shaven young clergyman who protested that he was glad to see him there, but did not offer his hand.  Conolly thanked him briefly, and went without further ceremony to the table, and was about to place his hat and overcoat on a heap of similar garments, when, observing that there were some hooks along the wall, he immediately crossed over and hung up his things on them, thereby producing an underbred effect of being more prudent and observant than the rest.  Then he looked at his program, and calculated how soon his turn to sing would come.  Then he unrolled his music, and placed two copies of Le Vallon ready to his hand upon the table.  Having made these arrangements with a self-possession that quite disconcerted the clergyman, he turned to examine the rest of the company.

His first glance was arrested by the beauty of a young lady with light brown hair and gentle grey eyes, who sat near the fire.  Beside her, on a lower chair, was a small, lean, and very restless young woman with keen dark eyes staring defiantly from a worn face.  These two were attended by a jovial young gentleman with curly auburn hair, who was twanging a banjo, and occasionally provoking an exclamation of annoyance from the restless girl by requesting her opinion of his progress in tuning the instrument.  Near them stood a tall man, dark and handsome.  He seemed unused to his present circumstances, and contemptuous, not of the company nor the object for which they were assembled, but in the abstract, as if habitual contempt were part of his nature.

The clergyman, who had just conducted to the platform an elderly professor in a shabby frock coat, followed by three well-washed children, each of whom carried a concertina, now returned and sat down beside a middle-aged lady, who made herself conspicuous by using a gold framed eyeglass so as to convey an impression that she was an exceedingly keen observer.

“It is fortunate that the evening is so fine,” said the clergyman to her.

“Yes, is it not, Mr. Lind?”

“My throat is always affected by bad weather, Mrs. Leith Fairfax.  I shall be so handicapped by the inevitable comparison of my elocution with yours, that I am glad the weather is favorable to me, though the comparison is not.”

“No,” said Mrs. Fairfax, with decision.  “I am not in the least an orator.  I can repeat a poem:  that is all.  Oh!  I hope I have not broken my glasses.”  They had slipped from her nose to the floor.  Conolly picked them up and straightened them with one turn of his fingers.