‘Yes, do, Twemlow, there’s a good chap,’ he welcomed the idea.  And with that he wafted them impulsively into the street.

Then Stanway stood waiting by his equipage for Ethel and Milly.  He spoke to no one, but examined the harness critically, and put some curt question to Carpenter about the breeching.  It was a chilly night, and the glare of the lamps showed that Prince steamed a little under his rug.  Ten minutes elapsed before Ethel came.

‘Here we are, father,’ she said with pleasant satisfaction.  ’Where’s mother?’

‘I should think so!’ he returned.  ’The horse taking cold, and me waiting and waiting.  Your mother’s had to go to Aunt Hannah’s.  What’s become of Milly?’ He was losing his temper.

Milly had to traverse the whole length of the corridor.  The Mayor heartily congratulated her.  The middle-aged violinist from Manchester spoke to her amiably as one public artist to another, and the conductor, who was with him, told her, in an unusual and indiscreet mood of candour, that she had simply made the show.  Others expressed the same thought in more words.  Near the entrance stood Harry Burgess, patently expectant.  He was flushed, and looked handsomely dandiacal and rakish as he rolled a cigarette in those quick fingers of his.  He meant to explain to her that the happy idea of the wreath was his own.

He accosted her unceremoniously, confidently, but she drew away, with a magnificent touch of haughtiness.

‘Good-night, Harry,’ she said coldly, and passed on.

The rash and conceited boy had not divined, as he should have done, that a prima donna is a prima donna, whether on the stage in a brilliant costume, or traversing a dingy corridor in the plain blue serge and simple hat of a manufacturer’s daughter aged eighteen.  Offering no reply to her formal salutation, he remained quite still for a moment, and then swaggered off to the Tiger.

‘Look here, my girl,’ said Stanway furiously to his youngest.  ’Do you suppose we’re going to wait for you all night?  Jump in.’

Milly’s lips did not move, but she faced the rude blusterer with a frigid, angry, insolent gaze.  And her girlish eyes said:  ’You’ve got me under your thumb now, you horrid beast!  But never mind!  Long after you are dead and buried and rotten, I shall be famous and pretty and rich, and if you are remembered it will only be because you were my father.  Do your worst, odious man; you can’t kill me!’

And all the way home the cruel, just, unmerciful thoughts of insulted youth mingled with the generous and beautiful sensations of her triumph.

* * * * *

‘Nay, it’s all over,’ said Meshach when Twemlow and Leonora entered.

‘What!’ Leonora exclaimed, glancing quickly at Arthur Twemlow as if for support in a crisis.

‘Doctor’s gone but just this minute.  Her’s gotten over it.’

For a moment she had thought that Aunt Hannah was dead.  John’s anxious excitement had communicated itself to her; she had imagined the worst possibilities.  Now the sensation of relief took her unawares, and she was obliged to sit down suddenly.