and
if she wanted him so much, why didn't she go to see him?

At last the curtain dropped, and the concert was over. As the people
began to go out, Rod overheard what those nearest to him were saying.
They were loud in their praise of the singer.

"It was that last piece which caught me," he heard one man say. "It
wasn't the words so much as the way she sang it."

"I was crying when she got through," his companion, a woman, replied.
"I just couldn't help it. She's had trouble in her life, mark my word."

Rod and Phil now were uncertain what to do. They remained where they
were until the people in front of them had all passed out. They felt
very helpless and forlorn there in that big place. The curtain was
down, and the singer had disappeared. But they must find her, and she
was somewhere on the stage in the background. They knew nothing about
the regular way of entrance, and, so, after a moment's consultation,
they hurried forward down the long central aisle. Coming to the stage,
they clambered upon this, made their way along the edge, and slipped
quickly about the left-hand corner of the curtain. Behind this no one
was to be seen, but observing a door to the right, they made straight
toward it. They had scarcely reached it, when they were met by a
pompous little man, who demanded what they were doing there.

"We want to see Miss Royanna," Rod replied, shrinking back somewhat
from the man's fierce look.

"See Miss Royanna!" the man shouted in surprise. "If that isn't the
limit! Well, she can't be seen, that's all there is about it."

"But we have come all the way to see her," Rod insisted.

"All the way from where?"

"From Hillcrest."

"Ho, ho! that's a good one. D'ye think she'd gee such bushies as you?
Get out of this, or I'll chuck you."

"But we must see her," and Rod stepped boldly forward. "It's very
important."

"Get out of this, I say," and the man caught him roughly by the
shoulders, wheeled him around, and was about to send him headlong out
upon the stage, when a stern voice arrested him.

"What's all this about, Ben?"

"I'm kicking these two bushies out, sir, for their impudence in coming
here," the little man replied, letting go of his grip upon the boy.

As Rod turned, his heart gave a great leap, for there before him stood
the very man with "the splendid eyes and grey hair," who had so won
Miss Arabella's heart.

For a few seconds John Markham eyed the two boys. Rod's f