darling of the stage, so was he
the darling of the audience.

And if no beautiful and graceful young girl blenched on the stage,
neither did the beautiful and graceful young girls in the audience
blench. You could see them sitting happily with their fathers and
mothers and cousins and uncles and aunts, savouring the spectacle from
dim stalls and boxes in the most perfect respectability. Laurencine
leaning her elbows on the ledge of the box, watched with eager, parted
lips, and never showed the slightest sign of uneasiness.

George was uneasy; he was distressed. The extraordinary juxtaposition of
respectability and a ribald sexual display startled but did not distress
him. If the whole audience was ready to stand it he certainly was. He
had no desire to protect people from themselves, nor to blush on behalf
of others--whoever they might be. Had anybody accused him of saintliness
he would have resented the charge, quite justifiably, and if the wit of
_The Gay Spark_ had been witty, he would have enjoyed it without a
qualm. What distressed him, what utterly desolated him, was the
grossness, the poorness, the cheapness, the dullness, and the
uninventive monotony of the interminable entertainment. He yawned, he
could not help yawning; he yawned his soul away. Lois must have heard
him yawning, but she did not move. He looked at her curiously,
pitifully, speculating how much of her luxury was due to Irene Wheeler,
and how little to 'Parisian' of _The Sunday Journal_--for he had been
inquiring about the fruits of journalism. The vision of his own office
and of the perspective drawing rose seductively and irresistibly in his
mind. He could not stay in the theatre; he felt that if he stayed he
would be in danger of dropping down dead, suffocated by tedium; and the
drawing must be finished; it would not wait; it was the most urgent
thing in the world. And not a syllable had any person in the box said to
him about his great task. Lois's forearm, braceleted, lay on the front
of the box. Unceremoniously he took her hand.

"Bye-bye."

"You aren't going?" Her whisper was incredulous.

"Must."

He gave her no chance to expostulate. With one movement he had seized
his hat and coat and slid from the box, just as the finale of the act
was imminent and the red-nosed comedian was measuring the gay spark for
new _lingerie_ with a giant property-cigar. He had not said good-bye to
Laurencine. He had not asked about their departure on th