and,
from the tips of his toes, was peeping at the stage through the glazed
hole in the door of a box. Into one of the child's hands he thrust the
card he had drawn again from his waistcoat and into the other the
largest silver coin he could find in the same receptacle, while he bent
over him with words of adjuration--words the little page tried to help
himself to apprehend by instantly attempting to peruse the other words
written on the card.

"That's no use--it's Italian," said Peter; "only carry it round to Miss
Rooth without a minute's delay. Place it in her hand and she'll give you
some object--a bracelet, a glove, or a flower--to bring me back as a
sign that she has received it. I shall be outside; bring me there what
she gives you and you shall have another shilling--only fly!"

His small messenger sounded him a moment with the sharp face of London
wage-earning, and still more of London tip-earning, infancy, and
vanished as swiftly as a slave of the Arabian Nights. While he waited in
the lobby the audience began to pour out, and before the urchin had
come back to him he was clapped on the shoulder by Nick.

"I'm glad I haven't lost you, but why didn't you stay to give her a
hand?"

"Give her a hand? I hated it."

"My dear man, I don't follow you," Nick said. "If you won't come to
Dashwood's supper I fear our ways don't lie together."

"Thank him very much; say I've to get up at an unnatural hour." To this
Peter added: "I think I ought to tell you she may not be there."

"Miss Rooth? Why it's all _for_ her."

"I'm waiting for a word from her--she may change her mind."

Nick showed his interest. "For you? What then have you proposed?"

"I've proposed marriage," said Peter in a strange voice.

"I say--!" Nick broke out; and at the same moment Peter's messenger
squeezed through the press and stood before him.

"She has given me nothing, sir," the boy announced; "but she says I'm to
say 'All right!'"

Nick's stare widened. "You've proposed through _him_?"

"Aye, and she accepts. Good-night!"--on which, turning away, Peter
bounded into a hansom. He said something to the driver through the roof,
and Nick's eyes followed the cab as it started off. This young man was
mystified, was even amused; especially when the youth in buttons,
planted there and wondering too, brought forth:

"Please sir, he told me he'd give me a shilling and he've forgot it."

"Oh I can't pay you for _that_!" Nick laughed. But he