n doesn't get a lot of acrobats and
conjurors, and let Miss Burgoyne and you and me stop at home. "The
Squire's Daughter" is really a very pretty piece, with some delightful
melody running through it; but that fellow has vulgarized it into the
lowest burlesque."

"What does it matter to you, Leo?" Nina said. "What he does is separate
from you. He cannot vulgarize your singing."

"But he makes all that clowning of his so important--it has become so
big a feature of the piece that any friends of yours coming to see the
little opera might very naturally say, 'Oh, is this the kind of thing he
figures in? This is an intellectual entertainment, truly!'"

"But you do not join in it, Leo!" Nina protested.

"In the most gagging scene of all, I've got to stand and look on the
whole time!" he said.

"Oh, no, Leo," Nina said, with mock sympathy, "you can listen to Miss
Burgoyne as she talks to you from behind her fan."

"Those two ladies I told you of," he continued, "who are coming on
Saturday night--I wonder what they will think of all that low-comedy
stuff. I begin to wish I hadn't asked them to come behind, but I thought
it might be a sort of inducement. Miss Cunyngham was very kind to me
when I was in the Highlands, and this was all I could think of; but I
don't think she has much of the frivolous curiosity of her
sisters-in-law; and I am not sure that her mother and she would even
care much for the honor of having tea in Miss Burgoyne's room. No, I
wish I hadn't asked them."

"Do you value their opinion so highly, then, Leo?" Nina asked, gently.

"Oh, yes," he said, with some hesitation--"that is, I shouldn't like
them to form any unfavorable impression--to go away with any scornful
feeling towards comic opera, and towards the people engaged in it; I
should like them to think well of the piece. I suppose I couldn't bribe
Collier to leave out the half of his gag, or the whole of it, for that
particular night. Did you see what one of the papers said about the
400th performance?--that the fate of "The Squire's Daughter" had for
some time been doubtful, but that it had been saved by the increased
prominence given to the part played by Mr. Fred Collier!--a compliment
to the public taste!--the piece saved by lugging in a lot of music-hall
buffoonery!"

"But, Leo," Nina said, "your friends who are coming on Saturday night
will not think you responsible for all that."

"People are apt to judge of you by your associates, N