tune; it woke
in him a confusion of feelings of which only the uppermost was allayed
by seeing Sophy Viner, as if instinctively warned, melt back into the
shadow of their box.

A minute later Owen Leath was at his side. "I was sure it was you! Such
luck to run across you! Won't you come off with us to supper after it's
over? Montmartre, or wherever else you please. Those two chaps over
there are friends of mine, at the Beaux Arts; both of them rather good
fellows--and we'd be so glad----"

For half a second Darrow read in his hospitable eye the termination "if
you'd bring the lady too"; then it deflected into: "We'd all be so glad
if you'd come."

Darrow, excusing himself with thanks, lingered on for a few minutes'
chat, in which every word, and every tone of his companion's voice, was
like a sharp light flashed into aching eyes. He was glad when the bell
called the audience to their seats, and young Leath left him with the
friendly question: "We'll see you at Givre later on?"

When he rejoined Miss Viner, Darrow's first care was to find out, by a
rapid inspection of the house, whether Owen Leath's seat had given him a
view of their box. But the young man was not visible from it, and Darrow
concluded that he had been recognized in the corridor and not at his
companion's side. He scarcely knew why it seemed to him so important
that this point should be settled; certainly his sense of reassurance
was less due to regard for Miss Viner than to the persistent vision of
grave offended eyes...

During the drive back to the hotel this vision was persistently kept
before him by the thought that the evening post might have brought a
letter from Mrs. Leath. Even if no letter had yet come, his servant
might have telegraphed to say that one was on its way; and at the
thought his interest in the girl at his side again cooled to the
fraternal, the almost fatherly. She was no more to him, after all, than
an appealing young creature to whom it was mildly agreeable to have
offered an evening's diversion; and when, as they rolled into the
illuminated court of the hotel, she turned with a quick movement which
brought her happy face close to his, he leaned away, affecting to be
absorbed in opening the door of the cab.

At the desk the night porter, after a vain search through the
pigeon-holes, was disposed to think that a letter or telegram had in
fact been sent up for the gentleman; and Darrow, at the announcement,
could hardly wai