said it was just like him, and it would serve him right if nobody
believed him.

"Hush!" said somebody near them.

"But they are believing him," said Glory quite audibly.

"Hush! Hush!" came from many parts of the theatre.

"Well, that's shameful--her father, too----" began Glory.

"Hush, Glory!" whispered Drake; but she had risen to her feet, and when
Hero fainted and fell she uttered a cry.

"What a girl!" whispered Polly. "Sit down--everybody's looking!"

"It's only a play, you know," whispered Drake; and Glory sat down and
said:

"Well, yes; of course, it's only a play. Did you suppose----"

But she was lost in a moment. Beatrice and Benedick were alone in the
church now; and when Beatrice said, "Kill Claudio," Glory leaped up again
and clapped her hands. But Benedick would not kill Claudio, and it was
the last straw of all. That wasn't what she called being a great actor,
and it was shameful to "sit and listen to such plays. Lots of disgraceful
scenes happened in life, but people didn't come to the theatre to see
such things, and she would go.

"How ridiculous you are!" said Polly; but Glory was out in the corridor,
and Drake was going after her.

She came back at the beginning of the fifth act with red eyes and
confused smiles, looking very much ashamed. From that moment onward she
cried a good deal, but gave no other sign until the green curtain came
down at the end, when she said:

"It's a wonderful thing! To make people forget it's not true is the most
wonderful thing in the world!"

Lord Robert, standing behind the curtain at the back of Polly's chair,
had been laughing at Glory with his long owlish drawl, and making cynical
interjections by way of punctuating her enthusiasm; and now he said,
"Would you like to have a nearer view of your wonderful world, Glory?"

Glory looked perplexed, and Drake muttered, "Hold your tongue, Robert!"
Then, turning to Glory, he said shortly: "He only asked if you would like
to go behind the scenes; but I don't think----"

Glory uttered a cry of delight. "Like it? Better than anything in the
world!"

"Then I must take you to a rehearsal somewhere," said Lord Robert; "and
you'll both come to tea at the chambers afterward."

Drake made some show of dissent; but Polly, with her most voluptuous look
upward, said it would be perfectly charming, and Glory was in raptures.

The girls, by their own choice, went home without escort by the
Hammersmith omnibus. They