"I b'lieve he's bolted," Leo whispered to Lady Holme. "Just like him."
"Why?"
"Oh!--I'm here, for one thing."
He looked at her victoriously.
"You'll have a letter from him to-morrow. Poor old chap!"
He spoke contemptuously.
For the first time Lord Holme seemed consciously and unfavourably
observant of his wife and Leo. His under-jaw began to move. But Miss
Schley came on to the stage again, and he thrust his head eagerly
forward.
During the rest of the evening Miss Schley did not relax her ingenious
efforts of mimicry, but she took care not to make them too prominent. She
had struck her most resonant note in the first act, and during the two
remaining acts she merely kept her impersonation to its original lines.
Lady Holme watched the whole performance imperturbably, but before the
final curtain fell she knew that she was not going to throw cold water on
that flame which was burning within her. Fritz's behaviour, perhaps,
decided which of the two actions should be carried out--the douching or
the fanning. Possibly Leo Ulford had something to say in the matter too.
Or did the faces of friends below in the stalls play their part in the
silent drama which moved step by step with the spoken drama on the stage?
Lady Holme did not ask questions of herself. When Mr. Laycock and Fritz
were furiously performing the duties of a claque at the end of the play,
she got up smiling, and nodded to Mrs.
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