Leonora

daily reflected the leisured process of her toilette. Her black skirt trimmed with yellow made a sudden sharp contrast with the pale tints of her corset and her long bare arms. The

th the warmth of the fire as Leonora moved away from the pier-glass between the two curtained windows where the ligh

quely opened, and

ora, a little startled. 'We ou

mustn't go. I m

eonora's existence. Utterly absorbed in the imminent examination, her brain a welter of sterile facts, Rose found all the seriousness of life in dates, irregular participles, algebraic symbols, chemical formulas, the altit

f you keep on like this. And y

ed creature whose horizons were bounded by dom

'I can't help it. I must work at my chemistry again to-night. Father knows perfect

it were daring her mot

the result of her recent contacts with the man of business in her husband. Why had she not been able to keep femininely aloof from those puzzling and repellent matters, ignorant of them, innocent of them? And Ethel, too! Twelve days of the office had culminated for Ethel in a slight illness, which Doctor Hawley described as lack of tone. Her father had said airily that she must resume her clerkship in due season, but the entire household well knew that she would not do so, and that the experiment was one of the failures which invariably followed John's interference in domestic concerns. As fo

ck, and at a quarter to eight he returned to fetch his mistress. E

to America; but I seed him yesterday as I was coming back from taking the mester to

ed!' said

ught was that she would have pref

n that the eternal quest for romance was still active on earth, though she might have abandoned it. In the corridor she met Uncle Meshach,

inquiry. 'She wasn't equal to coming, she s

Leonora suggested. 'I

not,' he fai

she said,

yes of other women envy and astonishment, she began to forget her despondencies. She lived again. She believed again in the possibility of joy. And perhaps it was not strange that her thought trave

ceeded. There was not a single young man, and scarcely an old one, but wore evening-dress, and the frocks of the women made a garden of radiant blossoms. Supreme among the eminent dandies who acted as stewards in that part of the house was Harry Burgess, straight out of Conduit Street, W., with a mien plainly indicating that every reserved seat had been sold two days before. From the second seats the sterling middle classes, half envy and half disdain, examined the gli

at a party. It hoped, but it feared. If any outsider had remarked that the youthful Bursley Operatic Society could not expect even to approach the achievements of its remarkable elder sister at Hanbridge, the audience would have chafed under that invidious suggestion. Nevertheless it could not

ence of the Mayoress had some connection with a silver

ispered benevolently, 'what s

Harry, whose confident smile exp

g enthusiasm depended the reputation of the Society and of Bursley-tapped his baton and stilled the chatter of the audience with a glance. The footlights went up, the lights of the chandelier went down, and a

idence; the bright grace of the well-known airs laid them under a spell. They looked diffidently at each other, as if to say: 'This is not so bad, you know.' And when the finale was reached, with its prodigious succession of cresce

your pipe and smoke it,' his unrelaxing features said to the audience; and also: 'If you ha

failed, honestly; and even when the action descended from song to banal dialogue, it was not reassured. 'Silly' was the unspoken epithet on a hundred tongues, despite the delicate persuasion of the music, the virginal charm of the maidens, and the illuminated richness of costumes and scene. The audience understood as little of the operatic convention as of the ?stheticism caricatured in the roseate environs of Castle Bunthorne. A number of people present had never been in a theatre, either for lack of opportunity or from a moral objection to theatres. Many others, who seldom missed a

othing external for its effectiveness. It gave the bewildered listeners something to take hold of, and in return for this gift they acclaimed and continued to acclaim. Milly glanced coolly at the conductor, who winked back his permission, and the next moment the Bursley Operatic Society tasted the delight of its first encore. The pert fascinations of the heroine, the bravery of the Colonel and his guards, the clowning of Bunthorne, combined with the continuous seduction of the music and the scene, very quickly induced the audience to accept without reserve this amazing intrigue of logical absurdities which was being unrolled before it. The opera ceased to appear preposterous; the convent

road,' said Uncle Meshach

barrassed. 'What do yo

, looking into her face with

go her own road

if she would let him. As he passed out, leaning forward on a stick lightly clutched in the left hand, several people dema

ing a way into the room, saw the multitude of men drinking and smoking, and the unapproachable white faces of these two girls distantly flowering in the haze and the odour, had that saturnalian sensation of seeing life which is peculiar to saloons during the entr'actes of theatrical entertainments. The success of the opera, and of that chit Millicent Stanway, formed the staple of the eager conversation, though here and there a sober couple would be discussing the tramcars or the quinquennial assessment exactly as if Gilbert and Sullivan had never been born. It appeared that Milly had a future, that she was the best Patience yet seen in the district amateur or professional, that any burlesque mana

ered hurriedly and called for a whisky and potass, whi

h,' he confided to her.

n the coffee-room, and with them and the leaves off that laurel d

He seemed

think I could, and a beauty! As

rightening. 'Can you send it round to me

nufacture of that wreath would be a source

s, and hastened away. The remainder of the company soon followed; the barmaid disappeared from the bar, and her assis

f the curtain, the certainty of a success, and the consciousness of sharing in the brilliance of that success-all these things raised the spirits, and produced the loquacity of an

ion had not been foreseen. Both Leonora and John had thought of the girls as modest members of the chorus in an affair unmistakably and confessedly amateur. Ethel had kept within the anticipation. But here was Milly an actress, exploiting herself with unconstrained gestures and arch glances and twirlings of her short skirt, to a crowded and miscellaneous audience. Leonora did not like it; her susceptibilities were outraged. She blushed at this amazing public contradiction of Milly's bringing-up. It seemed to her as if she had never known the real Milly, and knew her now for the first time. What would the other mothers think? What would all Hillport think secretly, and say openly

lite voice in Leonora's ear. It was

Leonora replied, pe

smooth insistence. 'And dear Ethel

rateful figure of mild, nervous, passionat

lute. He caught sight of her and bowed. She said to herself that she wished to be alone in her embarrassment, that she could not bear to talk to any one; nevertheless, she raised her finger, and bec

e said, looking at him, as he stood in front of her, w

od-bye? No! And how are you all? It seem

ling. 'Won't you sit here? It's J

e seemed to apologise f

side; it was better so, she thought-less disconcerting. In a slight pause of their talk she was startled to feel her heart beating like a hammer against her corsage. Her eyes had brightened. She conversed rapidly, pleased to be talking, pleased at his sympathetic responsiveness

uctor!' remarked T

effected, as it were, surreptitiously in the gloom and co

conscious that it was making a reputation, reacted upon and intensified each other to such a degree that the atmosphere became electric, delirious, magical. Not a soul in the auditorium or on the stage but what lived consummately during those min

as the evening advanced. They were, however, deceived. Her delivery of the phrase 'I am miserable beyond description' brought the house down by its coquettish artificiality; and the renowned ballad, 'Love is a plaintive song,' established her unforgettably in the affections of the audience. Her 'exit weepin

as she?' the conductor murmured to the fi

on of the dressing-room, Millicent had been able to commune with herself, and to foresee and take arms against the peril of an anti-climax. By sheer force, ingenuity, vivacity, flippancy, and sauciness, she lifted her lines to the level, and above the level, of the rest of the piece. She carried the audience with her; she knew it; all her colleague

back instead of being raised again, and the principals, beginning with the humblest, paraded in pairs in front of the footlights. Milly and her fortunate cavalier came last. The cavalier advanced two paces, took Milly's hand, signed to her to cross over, and retired. The child was left solitary on the stage-solitary, but unabashed, glowing with delight, and smiling as pertly as ever. The leader of the orchestra stood up and handed her a wreath, which she accepted like an oath of fealty; and the wreath, hurriedly manufactured by the barmaid of the Tiger out of some cut flowers and the old laurel tree in the Tiger yard, became, when M

ly, 'I guess you've got a

y 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 v

the same foolish reply to Mrs. Burgess. With Twemlow she wish

d to regard the situa

mean that she woul

ether she isn't born

amateurs' affair,

mateur. But she won'

Milly can't be

r. She's got the gift of making th

ge?' Leonora asked un

Doesn't she enjoy it? Isn't she at home ther

the opera she had seen John, in morning attire, propped against a side-wall and

low ejacul

er shoulders, he said in a different, kinder, more

her eyebrows, and smiling

y came hurrying up to t

here. I've just been told that a messenger came for Uncle Meshach a the

that aunt wasn't equal to coming.

u'd better go to Church Street

eemed to

ng excitement. 'Don't waste a moment. It may be serious. I'

I will walk down with he

he welcomed the idea. And with that he

s critically, and put some curt question to Carpenter about the breeching. It was a chilly night, and the g

e said with pleasant sati

nd me waiting and waiting. Your mother's had to go to Aunt

tor, 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, pa

nfidently, but she drew away, with

y,' she said cold

n a brilliant costume, or traversing a dingy corridor in the plain blue serge and simple hat of a manufacturer's daughter aged

ly to his youngest. 'Do you suppose we're

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

l thoughts of insulted youth mingled with the g

said Meshach when Twem

ncing quickly at Arthur Twemlo

just this minute. H

had communicated itself to her; she had imagined the worst possibilities. Now th

fire, and looking round sideways at the tall visitors in their rich evening attire. Leonora hea

felt as if she were falling down, and then down her falls. She was staring hard at th' ceiling, with eyes fit to burst, and her face as white as a sheet. Doctor lifts her up and puts her in a chair. Bless us! How her did gasp! And her lips were blue. "Hannah!" I says. Her heard but her cou

f I can do anything,'

was to go to sleep, and he's to send in a soothing draught. There's

the heart?'

's the

tion which seemed to swallow up like a pit the rays from the hissing gas-jet over the table. The image of the diminutive frail creature concealed ups

laintive laugh, pointing to the pewter platter on the mantelpiece by m

at each other; Leono

ything I can do, un

ill,' said Meshach, and he crept out o

Twemlow murmured, g

for the sake of saying somet

nce I can catch the last train. Go

nd with a feeli

they had shared many

the narrow lobby they came into contact and shook hands aga

said in a low voice, on the step. S

ble, reliable, honest, good-na

ng to the parlour. He lighted his pipe, and through th

he had driven Prince to Hillport and back in twenty

He could disguise neither his prese

on, as he gazed into the dying fire. 'Her may live another ten year.

offended, m

angrily as they drove home. 'Whose fault