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ustee, I don't think she could accomplish much by printing in her circulars the details of her past stewardship." "I don't want her to work up a reputation as a trustee," retorted Bobby. "She suits me just as she is, and I'm inclined to thank the governor for having loaded her down with the job." "I'm becoming reconciled to it myself," admitted Agnes, smiling up at him. "Really, I have great faith that one day you will learn how to take care of money--if the money holds out that long. What is the new venture, Bobby?" He grinned quite cheerfully. "I am about to become an angel," he said quite solemnly. Aunt Constance shook her head. "No, Bobby," she said kindly; "there _are_ spots, you know, where angels fear to tread." But Agnes took the declaration with no levity whatever. "You don't mean in a theatrical sense?" she inquired. "_In_ a theatrical sense," he insisted. "I am about to back the Neapolitan Grand Opera Company." "Why, Bobby!" objected Agnes, aghast. "You surely don't mean it! I never thought you would contemplate anything so preposterous as that. I thought it was to be only a benefit!" "It's only a temporary arrangement," he reassured her, laughing that he had been taken so seriously. "I'm arranging so that they can earn their way out of town; that's all. I am taking you down now to see their first rehearsal." "I don't care to go," she declared, in a tone so piqued that Bobby turned to her in mute astonishment. Aunt Constance laughed at his look of utter perplexity. "How little you understand, Bobby," she said. "Don't you see that Agnes is merely jealous?" "Indeed not!" Agnes indignantly denied. "That is an idea more absurd than the fact that Bobby should go into such an enterprise at all. However, since I lay myself open to such a suspicion I shall offer no further objection to going." Bobby looked at her curiously and then he carefully refrained from chuckling, for Aunt Constance, though joking, had told the truth. Instant visions of dazzling sopranos, of mezzos and contraltos, of angelic voices and of vast beauty and exquisite gowning, had flashed in appalling procession before her mental vision. The idea, in the face of the appalling actuality, was so rich that Bobby pursued it no further lest he spoil it, and talked about the weather and equally inane topics the rest of the way. It was not until they had turned into the narrow alley at the side of the Orpheum, and f
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