“What have you seen?” I was bewildered.  I began to wish that Sullivan had not abandoned me to her.

“Perhaps I’m wrong,” she laughed.

She laughed, and sat up straight again, and resumed her excellent imitation of the woman of fashion, while I tried to behave as though I had found nothing singular in her behavior.

“You know about our reception?” she asked vivaciously in another moment, playing with her fan.

“I’m afraid I don’t.”

“Where have you been, Carl?”

“I’ve been in Edinburgh,” I said, “for my final.”

“Oh!” she said.  “Well, it’s been paragraphed in all the papers.  Sullivan is giving a reception in the Gold Rooms of the Grand Babylon Hotel.  Of course, it will be largely theatrical,—­Sullivan has to mix a good deal with that class, you know; it’s his business,—­but there will be a lot of good people there.  You’ll come, won’t you?  It’s to celebrate the five hundredth performance of ‘My Queen.’  Rosetta Rosa is coming.”

“I shall be charmed.  But I should have thought you wouldn’t ask Rosa after what you’ve just said.”

“Not ask Rosa!  My dear Carl, she simply won’t go anywhere.  I know for a fact she declined Lady Casterby’s invitation to meet a Serene Highness.  Sir Cyril got her for me.  She’ll be the star of the show.”

The theatre darkened once more.  There were the usual preliminaries, and the orchestra burst into the prelude of the second act.

“Have you ever done any crystal-gazing?” Emmeline whispered.

And some one on the floor of the house hissed for silence.

I shook my head.

“You must try.”  Her voice indicated that she was becoming excited again.  “At my reception there will be a spiritualism room.  I’m a believer, you know.”

I nodded politely, leaning over the front of the box to watch the conductor.

Then she set herself to endure the music.

Immediately the second act was over, Sullivan returned, bringing with him a short, slight, bald-headed man of about fifty.  The two were just finishing a conversation on some stage matter.

“Smart, let me introduce to you my cousin, Carl Foster.  Carl, this is Sir Cyril Smart.”

My first feeling was one of surprise that a man so celebrated should be so insignificant to the sight.  Yet as he looked at me I could somehow feel that here was an intelligence somewhat out of the common.  At first he said little, and that little was said chiefly to my cousin’s wife, but there was a quietude and firmness in his speech which had their own effect.

Sir Cyril had small eyes, and small features generally, including rather a narrow forehead.  His nostrils, however, were well curved, and his thin, straight lips and square chin showed the stiffest determination.  He looked fatigued, weary, and harassed; yet it did not appear that he complained of his lot; rather accepted it with sardonic humor.  The cares of an opera season and of three other simultaneous managements weighed on him ponderously, but he supported the burden with stoicism.