Association, and had no connection with Pleasant Sunday Afternoons. Mr.
Doxey stated that he was going on to the Alhambra to 'do' the celebrated
Toscato, the inventor of the new vanishing trick, who made his first
public appearance in England at nine forty-five that night.

'You didn't mind my introducing him to you? He's a decent little man in
some ways,' said Geraldine humbly, when they were alone again.

'Oh, of course not!' Henry assured her. 'By the way, what would you like
to do to-night?'

'I don't know,' she said. 'It's awfully late, isn't it? Time flies so
when you're interested.'

'It's a quarter to nine. What about the Alhambra?' he suggested.

(He who had never been inside a theatre, not to mention a music-hall!)

'Oh!' she burst out. 'I adore the Alhambra. What an instinct you have! I
was just hoping you'd say the Alhambra!'

They had Turkish coffee. He succeeded very well in pretending that he
had been thoroughly accustomed all his life to the spectacle of women
smoking--that, indeed, he was rather discomposed than otherwise when
they did not smoke. He paid the bill, and the waiter brought him half a
crown concealed on a plate in the folds of the receipt; it was the
change out of a five-pound note.

Being in a hansom with her, though only for two minutes, surpassed even
the rapture of the restaurant. It was the quintessence of Life.

CHAPTER XVII

A NOVELIST IN A BOX

Perhaps it was just as well that the curtain was falling on the ballet
when Henry and Geraldine took possession of their stalls in the superb
Iberian auditorium of the Alhambra Theatre. The glimpse which Henry had
of the _prima ballerina assoluta_ in her final pose and her costume, and
of the hundred minor choregraphic artists, caused him to turn
involuntarily to Geraldine to see whether she was not shocked. She,
however, seemed to be keeping her nerve fairly well; so he smothered up
his consternation in a series of short, dry coughs, and bought a
programme. He said to himself bravely: 'I'm in for it, and I may as well
go through with it.' The next item, while it puzzled, reassured him. The
stage showed a restaurant, with a large screen on one side. A lady
entered, chattered at an incredible rate in Italian, and disappeared
behind the screen, where she knocked a chair over and rang for the
waiter. Then the waiter entered and disappeared behind the screen,
chattering at an incredible rate in Italian. The waiter reappeared