* * * * *

‘Well,’ said Twemlow calmly, ’I guess you’ve got an actress in the family.’

Leonora and he remained in their seats, waiting till the press of people in the aisles should have thinned, and also, so far as Leonora was concerned, to avoid the necessity of replying to remarks about Milly.  The atmosphere was still charged with excitement, but Leonora observed that Arthur Twemlow did not share it.  Though he had applauded vigorously, there had been no trace of emotional transport in his demeanour.  He spoke at once, immediately the lights were turned up, giving her no chance to collect herself.

‘But do you think so?’ she said.  She remembered she had made the same foolish reply to Mrs. Burgess.  With Twemlow she wished to be unconventional and sincere, but she could not succeed.

‘Don’t you?’ He seemed to regard the situation as rather amusing.

‘You surely can’t mean that she would do for the stage?’

‘Ask any one here whether she isn’t born for it,’ he answered.

‘This is only an amateurs’ affair,’ Leonora argued.

‘And she’s only an amateur.  But she won’t be an amateur long.’

‘But a girl like Milly can’t be clever enough——­’

’It depends on what you call clever.  She’s got the gift of making the audience hug itself.  You’ll see.’

‘See Milly on the stage?’ Leonora asked uneasily.  ‘I hope not.’

’Why, my dear lady?  Isn’t she built for it?  Doesn’t she enjoy it?  Isn’t she at home there?  What’s the matter with the stage anyhow?’

‘Her father would never hear of such a thing,’ said Leonora.  Towards the close of the opera she had seen John, in morning attire, propped against a side-wall and peering at the stage and his daughter with a bewildered, bored, unsympathetic air.

‘Ah!’ Twemlow ejaculated grimly.

A moment later, as he was putting her cloak over her shoulders, he said in a different, kinder, more soothing tone:  ’I guess I know just how you feel.’

She looked at him, raising her eyebrows, and smiling with melancholy amusement.

In the corridor, Stanway came hurrying up to them, obviously excited.

‘Oh, you’re here, Nora!’ he burst out.  ’I’ve been hunting for you everywhere.  I’ve just been told that a messenger came for Uncle Meshach a the interval to say that Aunt Hannah was ill.  Do you know anything about it?’

‘No,’ she said.  ’Uncle only told me that aunt wasn’t equal to coming.  I wondered where uncle had got to.’

‘Well,’ Stanway continued, ’you’d better go to Church Street at once, and see after things.’

Leonora seemed to hesitate.

‘As quick as you can,’ he said with irritation and increasing excitement.  ’Don’t waste a moment.  It may be serious.  I’ll drive the girls home, and then I’ll come and fetch you.’

‘If Mrs. Stanway cares, I will walk down with her,’ said Arthur Twemlow.