in the draft and held
my hair on. They're always there; I hear them talking about you in the
smoking room. Probably we don't get to the point of apprehending
anything good until we're about forty. Then, in the light of what is
going, and of what, God help us! is coming, we arrive at understanding."

"I don't see why people go to the opera, anyway,--serious people." She
spoke discontentedly. "I suppose they get something, or think they do.
Here's the coffee. There, please," she directed the waiter. Going to the
table she began to pour the coffee, standing. She wore a white dress
trimmed with crystals which had rattled a good deal during dinner, as
all her movements had been impatient and nervous, and she had twisted
the dark velvet rose at her girdle until it looked rumpled and weary.
She poured the coffee as if it were a ceremony in which she did not
believe. "Can you make anything of Fred's nonsense, Dr. Archie?" she
asked, as he came to take his cup.

Fred approached her. "My nonsense is all right. The same brand has gone
with you before. It's you who won't be jollied. What's the matter? You
have something on your mind."

"I've a good deal. Too much to be an agreeable hostess." She turned
quickly away from the coffee and sat down on the piano bench, facing the
two men. "For one thing, there's a change in the cast for Friday
afternoon. They're going to let me sing SIEGLINDE." Her frown did not
conceal the pleasure with which she made this announcement.

"Are you going to keep us dangling about here forever, Thea? Archie and
I are supposed to have other things to do." Fred looked at her with an
excitement quite as apparent as her own.

"Here I've been ready to sing SIEGLINDE for two years, kept in torment,
and now it comes off within two weeks, just when I want to be seeing
something of Dr. Archie. I don't know what their plans are down there.
After Friday they may let me cool for several weeks, and they may rush
me. I suppose it depends somewhat on how things go Friday afternoon."

"Oh, they'll go fast enough! That's better suited to your voice than
anything you've sung here. That gives you every opportunity I've waited
for." Ottenburg crossed the room and standing beside her began to play
"DU BIST DER LENZ."

With a violent movement Thea caught his wrists and pushed his hands away
from the keys.

"Fred, can't you be serious? A thousand things may happen between this
and Friday to put me out. Something will h