bscribers refused to occupy their boxes more than one night a
week, and, later on, not even that: the space was filled for a while
with servitors and domestic dependents, and presently by nobody....

Raymond went into the enterprise. He put in a goodly sum of money that
never came back to him; and if he cooeperated but indifferently, or
worse, he was not more inept than some of his associates. He was
displeased to learn that the McComases had given enough to the
guarantee-fund to insure them a box. And it offended him that, on the
opening night, his former wife, one of a large and assertive party,
should make her voice heard during intermissions (and at some other
times too) quite across the small auditorium. The situation was
generally felt to be piquant, and at the end of the performance people
in the lobby were amused (save the few who had the affair greatly at
heart) to hear Johnny McComas's comment on the play. It was a
far-fetched problem-play from the German, and Raymond had been one of
those who favored it for an opening.

"Did you ever see such a play in your life?" queried Johnny. "What was
it all about? And wasn't _he_ the fool!"

McComas--really caring nothing for the evening's entertainment either
way--could easily afford a large amount for social prestige, and his
wife for general social consolidation. It was little to Johnny that his
thousands went up in exacting systems of ventilation and in salaries for
an expensive staff; but it was awkward for Raymond to lose a sum which,
while absolutely less, was relatively much greater. After a few months
the scheme was dropped; the expensive installation went to the advantage
of a vaudeville manager; Raymond felt poorer, even slightly crippled,
and the voice of the present Mrs. Johnny McComas ran till the end
across that tiny _salle_.

This, I am glad to say, was the last of Raymond's endeavors to patronize
the arts.

VI

Albert's last year at his distant school ended rather abruptly. He came
home, ailing, about a month before the close of the school year. He was
thin and languid. He may have been growing too fast; he may have been
studying too hard; he may have missed the "delightful motherly soul" who
would have brooded over him at the school first proposed; or the
drinking-water may have been infected--_que sais-je_? Well, Albert moped
during much of May through the big house, and his mother heard of his
return and his moping, made the most of it, and