, at
any rate, I was determined not to let the thing linger on. So that, when
the Chateauvieux asked me to stay and sup with them and her, I supped,
and afterwards in the garden boldly brought it out before them all, and
appealed to your sister for help. I knew that both she and her husband
were acquainted with what had happened at Oxford, and I supposed that
Miss Bretherton would know that they were, so that it was awkward enough.
Only that women, when they please, have such tact, such an art of
smoothing over and ignoring the rough places of life, that one often with
them gets through a difficult thing without realising how difficult it
is. M. de Chateauvieux smoked a long time and said nothing, then he asked
me a great many questions about the play, and finally gave no opinion. I
was almost in despair--she said so little--until, just as I was going
away with _Elvira's_ fate still quite unsettled, she said to me with a
smile and a warm pressure of the hand, "To-morrow come and see me, and I
will tell you yes or no!"

'And to-day I have been to see her, and the night has brought good luck!
For _Elvira_, my dear Kendal, will be produced on or about the 20th
November, in this year of grace, and Isabel Bretherton will play the
heroine, and your friend is already plunged in business, and aglow with
hope and expectation. How I wish--how we all wish--that you were here! I
feel more and more penitent towards you. It was you who gave the impulse
of which the results are ripening, and you ought to be here with us now,
playing in the body that friend's part which we all yield you so readily
in spirit. "Tell Mr. Kendal," were almost her last words to me, "that I
cannot say how much I owe to his influence and his friendship. He first
opened my eyes to so many things. He was so kind to me, even when he
thought least of me. I hope I shall win a word of praise from him yet!"
There! I trust that will rouse a little pleasant conceit in you. She
meant it, and it is true. I must go off and work at many things.
To-morrow or next day, after some further talk with her, I shall set off
homewards, look up Forbes and begin operations. She will be in town in
about three weeks from now--as you know she is going to stay first with
your sister in Paris--and then we shall have hard work till about the
middle of November, when I suppose the play will be produced. This will
be more than a fortnight later than she intended to open, and Mr. Worrall
wil