AGNANIMOUS RIVAL.

That Monday night at the New Theatre was a great occasion; for, although
there were a few people (themselves not of much account, perhaps) who
went about saying there was no one in London, an enormous house welcomed
back to the stage those well-known favorites, Miss Burgoyne and Mr.
Lionel Moore. And what had become of the Aivron and the Geinig
now?--their distant murmurs were easily drowned in the roar of
enthusiasm with which the vast audience--a mass of orange-hued faces
they seemed across the footlights--greeted the prima-donna and the
popular young baritone. Nina was here also, in her subordinate part. And
all that Miss Burgoyne could do, on the stage and off the stage, to
attract his attention, did not hinder Lionel from watching, with the
most affectionate interest, the manner in which his _protegee_, his old
comrade Nina, was acquitting herself. Clara was perhaps a little bit too
eager and anxious; she anticipated her cues; her parted lips seemed to
repeat what was being said to her; lights and shadows of expression
chased each other over the mobile features and brightened or darkened
her eloquent eyes; and in her passages with Grace Mainwaring she was
most effusive, though that other young lady maintained a much more
matter-of-fact demeanor.

"Capital, Nina! Very well done!" Lionel exclaimed (to himself) in the
wings. "You're on the right track. It is easier to tone down than to
brace up. Don't be afraid--keep it going--you'll grow business-like soon
enough."

Here Clara had to come tripping off the stage, and Lionel had to go on;
he had no opportunity of speaking to her until the end of the act, when
they chanced to meet in the long glazed corridor.

"You're a bit nervous to-night, Nina," he said, in a kindly way.

"But so as to be bad?" she said, quickly and anxiously.

"It was very well done indeed--it was splendid--but you almost take too
much pains. Most girls with a voice like yours would merely sing a part
like that and think the management was getting enough. I suppose you
don't know yourself that you keep repeating what the other person is
saying to you--as if he weren't getting on fast enough--"

Nina paused for a second.

"Yes, I understand--I understand what you mean," she said, rather
slowly; then she continued, in her usual way, "But to-night, Leo, I am
anxious--oh, there are so many things!--this is the first time I act
with Miss Burgoyne; and I wish them not to say