rush to the theatre there was not time to
discharge the debt forthwith. "But we must settle up after breakfast
to-morrow. Short accounts make long friends!" he declared smilingly, as
he helped her to put on her cloak.

Cornelia had dressed with a vivid remembrance of the fact that Captain
Guest had never seen her in evening attire, and a determination to
secure "a big moment," for his benefit. When an hour or two later he
stood at the entrance to the stalls, and caught sight of her seated in
the centre of the front row, it seemed at first sight that she was clad
entirely in black, but even as he was applauding the choice for the
display of ruddy locks and snowy shoulders, she made a sudden movement,
and lo! the black was transformed into vivid, glittering green. Now she
was conspicuous--too conspicuous, to please his fastidious taste. He
could see opera-glasses levelled on her from the boxes overhead, and
over the edge of the dress circle. She sat well forward in her stall,
with head thrown back, and eyes fixed upon the stage, in absorbed
attention. There was no doubting the unconsciousness of the pose; she
was as oblivious of the gaze of others as of his own presence, but he
felt an irritated longing to muffle her in veils and wrappings; to lift
her up and transplant her to the back seat in a box. What business had
those idiots to stare at her, as if she were one of the actresses on the
stage? He branded the idiots with even stronger titles, the while he
continued to follow their example. Surely it was a forgivable sin to be
conspicuously attractive; to stand out, vivid and dazzling, from the
surrounding throng, whose chief characteristics seemed to be a bleached
inanity, and indifference...

Guest stood in the shadow, his deep-set eyes fixed on the girl with
unblinking scrutiny. He remembered that such a gaze was said to demand
a response where a certain amount of affinity existed between the people
involved, and put out his strength to try the truth of the statement in
his own case. The proof came almost startlingly soon. Cornelia's head
turned over her shoulder, and her eyes lightened with a flash of
recognition. She smiled at him, nodded her head, and arched her brows,
signalling a message, which he could easily divine to be an invitation
to come to speak to her between the acts. When the curtain fell, Mr
Moffatt made an immediate rush for the door, and Guest took possession
of his seat, devoutly t