Le Mesurier's lips instinctively pouted a mischievous 'bourgeois'
towards Mallinson. He remarked hastily that he thought the curtain was on
the point of rising, and Miss Le Mesurier pushed her opera-glasses
towards him with a serene 'Not yet, I think.' Mallinson understood the
suggestion of her movement and relapsed into a sullen silence.

By the time that Conway and Drake rose to leave the box Mr. Le Mesurier
had thought out his idea. His manner changed of a sudden to one of great
cordiality; he expressed his pleasure at meeting Drake, and shook him by
the hand, but destroyed the effect of his action through weakly revealing
his diplomacy to his daughter by a triumphant glance at her.

At the close of the performance he met Drake in the vestibule of the
theatre and lingered behind his party. Fielding, Mallinson, and Conway
meanwhile saw Miss Le Mesurier into her carriage.

'What in the world is papa doing?' asked Clarice.

'Exchanging cards with Drake,' replied Fielding. Mallinson turned his
head round quickly and beheld the two gentlemen affably shaking hands
again. Conway bent into the carriage.

'Do you like him?' he asked.

'Oh yes,' she replied indifferently.

'Then I am glad I introduced him to you,' and some emphasis was laid
upon the 'I.'

Mr. Le Mesurier came out to the brougham and the coachman drove off.

'I like that young fellow, Drake,' he said, with a wave of the hand. 'I
have asked him to call.'

Clarice did not inform her diplomatic father that unless she had foreseen
his intention she would have undertaken the discharge of that act of
courtesy herself.

Mallinson took a hansom and drove straight from the theatre to his
chambers in South Kensington, Conway walked off in the opposite
direction, so that Drake and Fielding were left to stroll away together.
They walked across Leicester Square towards St. James's Street, each
occupied with his own thoughts. Fielding's were of an unusually
stimulating kind; he foresaw the possibility of a very diverting comedy,
to be played chiefly for his amusement and partly for Miss Le Mesurier's,
by Clarice herself, Drake, and Mallinson. From the clash of two natures
so thoroughly different as those of the two men, played off against one
another with all the delicate manipulation of Miss Le Mesurier's
experienced hand, there was much enjoyment to be anticipated for the
purely disinterested spectator which he intended to be. Of the probable
_denouement_ he