THE ESSENTIAL GEORGE BERNARD SHAW COLLECTION. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

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      “You might have told me you were coming. I could have got you a stall, although I suppose you would have preferred to throw away your money like a fool.”

      “I must admit, my dear,” said Conolly, “that I could have spent it to much greater advantage.”

      “Indeed! and you!” she said, turning to Lind, whose deepening color betrayed his growing mortification: “what is the matter with you?”

      “I have played a trick on your friend,” said Conolly. “He suggested this visit; and I did not tell him of the relation between us. Finding us on terms of familiarity, if not of affection, he is naturally surprised.”

      “As I have never tried to meddle with your private affairs,” said

       Marmaduke to Lalage, “I need not apologize for not knowing your husband.

       But I regret — —”

      The actress laughed in spite of her vexation. “Why, you silly old thing!” she exclaimed, “he is no more my husband than you are!”

      “Oh!” said Marmaduke. “Indeed!”

      “I am her brother,” said Conolly considerately, stifling a smile.

      “Why,” said Mademoiselle Lalage fiercely, raising her voice, “what else did you think?”

      “Hush,” said Conolly, “we are talking too much in this crowd. You had better change your dress, Susanna, and then we can settle what to do next.”

      “You can settle what you please,” she replied. “I am going home.”

      “Mr. Lind has suggested our supping together,” said Conolly, observing her curiously.

      Susanna looked quickly at them.

      “Who is Mr. Lind?” she said.

      “Your friend, of course,” said Conolly, with an answering flash of intelligence that brought out the resemblance between them startlingly. “Mr. Marmaduke Lind.”

      Marmaduke became very red as they both waited for him to explain.

      “I thought that you would perhaps join us at supper,” he said to

       Susanna.

      “Did you?” she said, threateningly. Then she turned her back on him and went to her dressing-room.

      “Well, Mr. Lind,” said Conolly, “what do you think of Mademoiselle

       Lalage now?”

      “I think her annoyance is very natural,” said Marmaduke, gloomily. “No doubt you are right to take care of your sister, but you are very much mistaken if you think I meant to act badly toward her.”

      “It is no part of my duty to take care of her,” said Conolly, seriously. “She is her own guardian, and she has never been encouraged to suppose that her responsibility lies with any one but herself.”

      “It doesnt matter now,” said Marmaduke; “for I intend never to speak to her again.”

      Conolly laughed. “However that may turn out,” he said, “we are evidently not in the mood for further conviviality, so let us postpone the supper to some other occasion. May I advise you not to wait until Susanna returns. There is no chance of a reconciliation tonight.”

      “I dont want any reconciliation.”

      “Of course not; I had forgotten,” replied Conolly, placably. “Then I suppose you will go before she has finished dressing.”

      “I shall go now,” said Marmaduke, buttoning his overcoat, and turning away.

      “Goodnight,” said Conolly.

      “Goodnight,” muttered Marmaduke, petulantly, and disappeared.

      Conolly waited a moment, so that he might not overtake Lind. He then went for a cab, and waited at the stage door until his sister came down, frowning. She got into the hansom without a word.

      “Why dont you have a brougham, instead of going about in cabs?” he said, as they drove away.

      “Because I like a hansom better than a brougham; and I had rather pay four shillings a night and travel comfortably, than thirteen and be half suffocated.”

      “I thought the appearance of — —”

      “There is no use in your talking to me. I cant hear a word you say going over these stones.”

      When they were alone together in their drawingroom in Lambeth, he, after walking up and down the room a few times, and laughing softly to himself, began to sing the couplets from the burlesque.

      “Are you aware,” she inquired, “that it is half past twelve, and that the people of the house are trying to sleep.”

      “True,” said he, desisting. “By the bye, I, too, have had my triumphs this evening. I shared the honors of the concert with Master Lind, who was so delighted that he insisted on bringing me off to the Bijou. He loves you to distraction, poor devil!”

      “Yes: you made a nice piece of mischief there. Where is he?”

      “Gone away in a rage, swearing never to speak to you again.”

      “Hm! And so his name is Lind, is it?”

      “Didnt you know?”

      “No, or I should have told you when I read the program this evening. The young villain pretended that his name was Marmaduke Sharp.”

      “Ah! The name reminds me of one of his cousins, a little spitfire that snaps at every one who presumes to talk to her.”

      “His cousins! Oh, of course; you met them at the concert. What are they like? Are they swells?”

      “Yes, they seem to be. There were only two cousins, Miss McQuinch and a young woman named Marian, blonde and rather good looking. There was a brother of hers there, but he is only a parson, and a tall fellow named Douglas, who made rather a fool of himself. I could not make him out exactly.”

      “Did they snub you?”

      “I dont know. Probably they tried. Are you intimate with many of our young nobility under assumed names?”

      “Steal a few more marches to the Bijou, and perhaps you will find out.”

      “Goodnight! Pardon my abrupt departure, but you are not the very sweetest of Susannas tonight.”

      “Oh, good-night.”

      “By the bye,” said Conolly, returning, “this must be the Mr. Duke Lind who is going to marry Lady Constance Carbury, my noble pupil’s sister.”

      “I am sure it matters very little whom he marries.”

      “If he will pay us a visit here, and witness СКАЧАТЬ