of the audience which followed the lowering
of the curtain, the master of the _Foam_ was the first on his feet.

"I'll go down and send him up," said Fraser, rising.

Miss Tyrell demurred, and revealed an unsuspected timidity of character.
"I don't like being left here all alone," she remarked. "Wait till they
see us."

She spoke in the plural, for Miss Wheeler, who found the skipper
exceedingly bad company, had also risen, and was scrutinising the house
with a gaze hardly less eager than his own. A suggestion of the mate
that he should wave his handkerchief was promptly negatived by Miss
Tyrell, on the ground that it would not be the correct thing to do in
the upper-circle, and they were still undiscovered when the curtain went
up for the second act, and strong and willing hands from behind thrust
the skipper back into his seat.

"I expect you'll catch it," said Miss Tyrell, softly, as the performance
came to an end; "we'd better go down and wait for them outside. I never
enjoyed a piece so much."

The mate rose and mingled with the crowd, conscious of a little
occasional clutch at his sleeve whenever other people threatened to
come between them. Outside the crowd dispersed slowly, and it was some
minutes before they discovered a small but compact knot of two waiting
for them.

"Where the--" began Flower.

"I hope you enjoyed the performance, Captain Flower," said Miss Tyrell,
drawing herself up with some dignity. "I didn't know that I was supposed
to look out for myself all the evening. If it hadn't been for Mr. Fraser
I should have been all alone."

She looked hard at Miss Wheeler as she spoke, and the couple from the
pit-stalls reddened with indignation at being so misunderstood.

"I'm sure I didn't want him," said Miss Wheeler, hastily. "Two or three
times I thought there would have been a fight with the people behind."

"Oh, it doesn't matter," said Miss Tyrell, composedly. "Well, it's no
good standing here. We'd better get home."

She walked off with the mate, leaving the couple behind, who realised
that appearances were against them, to follow at their leisure.
Conversation was mostly on her side, the mate being too much occupied
with his defence to make any very long or very coherent replies.

They reached Liston Street at last, and separated at the door, Miss
Tyrell shaking hands with the skipper in a way which conveyed in the
fullest possible manner her opinion of his behaviour that evening. A