defend each other, Mrs. Stuart, against those two shower-baths, and when
we go to see her afterwards I shall be invaluable, for I shall be able to
save Kendal and Wallace the humbug of compliments.'

Whereupon the others protested that they would on no account be deprived
of their share of the compliments, and Wallace especially laid it down
that a man would be a poor creature who could not find smooth things to
say upon any conceivable occasion to Isabel Bretherton. Besides, he saw
her every day, and was in excellent practice. Forbes looked a little
scornful, but at this point Mrs. Stuart succeeded in diverting his
attention to his latest picture, and the dinner flowed on pleasantly till
the coffee was handed and the carriage announced.

CHAPTER III

On their arrival at the theatre armed with Miss Bretherton's order, Mrs.
Stuart's party found themselves shown into a large roomy box close to the
stage--too close, indeed, for purposes of seeing well. The house was
already crowded, and Kendal noticed, as he scanned the stalls and boxes
through his opera-glass, that it contained a considerable sprinkling of
notabilities of various kinds. It was a large new theatre, which hitherto
had enjoyed but a very moderate share of popular favour, so that the
brilliant and eager crowd with which it was now filled was in itself a
sufficient testimony to the success of the actress who had wrought so
great a transformation.

'What an experience this is for a girl of twenty-one,' whispered Kendal
to Mrs. Stuart, who was comfortably settled in the farther corner of the
box, her small dainty figure set off by the crimson curtains behind it.
'One would think that an actor's life must stir the very depths of a man
or woman's individuality, that it must call every power into action, and
strike sparks out of the dullest.'

'Yes; but how seldom it is so!'

'Well, in England, at any rate, the fact is, their training is so
imperfect they daren't let themselves go. It's only when a man possesses
the lower secrets of his art perfectly that he can aim at the higher. But
the band is nearly through the overture. Just tell me before the curtain
goes up something about the play. I have only very vague ideas about it.
The scene is laid at Berlin?'

'Yes; in the Altes Schloss at Berlin. The story is based upon the legend
of the White Lady.'

'What? the warning phantom of the Hohenzollerns?'

Mrs. Stuart nodded. 'A Crown-Prince of Prussi