Lady
Holme knew this because she had seen the play in Paris. She thought the
American version very dull. The impropriety had been removed and with it
all the fun. People began to yawn and to assume the peculiar blank
expression--the bankrupt face--that is indicative of thwarted
anticipation. Only the Americans who had seen the piece in New York
preserved their lively looks and an appearance of being on the /qui
vive/.
Lord Holme's blunt brown features gradually drooped, seemed to become
definitely elongated. As time went on he really began to look almost
lantern-jawed. He bent forward and tried to catch Mr. Laycock's eye and
to telegraph an urgent question, but only succeeded in meeting the surly
blue eyes of Leo Ulford, whom he met to-night for the first time. In his
despair he turned towards Mrs. Leo, and at once encountered the
ear-trumpet. He glanced at it with apprehension, and, after a moment of
vital hesitation, was about to pour into it the provender, "Have you any
notion when she's comin' on?" when there was a sudden rather languid
slapping of applause, and he jerked round hastily to find Miss Schley
already on the stage and welcomed without any of the assistance which he
was specially there to give. He lifted belated hands, but met a glance
from his wife which made him drop them silently. There was a satire in
her eyes, a sort of humorous, half-urging patronage that pierced the hide
of his self-satisfied and lethargic mind.
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