His eyes began to gleam, with
joyful gluttony. The congested redness of his cheeks grew deeper, and he
turned round, stroking his beard and straightening up his top-hat with
the vanity of a fool who thinks people are admiring him.

The long, sharp trilling of electric bells announced that the second act
was about to begin. Everybody began crowding back into the theater; and
now, in the solitude of the foyer, the bust of Gayarre seemed higher.
Don Manuel exclaimed:

"Come along with me. I'll introduce you to Alicia."

Don Manuel noticed the student's dismayed look, and added:

"That's all right about your not having a dress-suit on. You can stay in
the rear of the box."

He started off with a firm step, trying to assume the ease and grace of
youth. Enrique followed him without a word. He felt both happy and
afraid.

They reached the outer box, that Don Manuel judged good enough for the
young fellow. The deputy murmured:

"This is all right, isn't it? I'll see you later. You can see
everything, here."

Enrique made no answer. The play was already going on, and in the
religious stillness of the theater the chorus of the piece was rising in
triumphal harmony. It was one of those pleasant Italian operas,
freighted for all of us with memories of youth. Darles ventured to raise
one of the heavy curtains just a little, that shut the outer box off
from the inner one. A young woman was sitting there, with her back to
him and her elbows on the railing of the box. She was all in white. He
could see the tempting outlines of her firm hips, beneath the childish
insufficiency of her girdle. Her shoulders were plump and of flawless
perfection. On the snow of her bare neck her blonde hair, tinged with
red, shadowed tawny reflections. Two splendid emeralds trembled, green
as drops of absinthe, in the rosy lobes of her small, fine ears.

Don Manuel was beside her. Darles noted that Alicia and the deputy had
very little to say to each other. Suddenly she turned her head with an
inquisitive air, graceful and fascinating; and the student received full
in the eyes the shock of two large, green, luminous pupils--living
emeralds, indeed. Her scrutiny of him was short, searching and curious;
it changed to an expression of scorn.

Darles flushed red and began to tremble. He let the curtain fall, and
took refuge at the rear of the outer box. His first impulse was to
escape; but presently he changed his mind, for it seemed to him more