tay? It may be six o'clock in the morning," said
Charmian.

"That is a little late. But--"

At this moment Charmian saw Claude coming into the stalls by the left
entrance near the stage.

"Oh, there's Claude!" she exclaimed, interrupting Mrs. Shiffney, and
evidently not knowing that she did so. "Au revoir! Thank you so much!"

She was gone.

"Thank me so much!" said Mrs. Shiffney to Jonson Ramer. "What for? Do
you know, Jonson?"

"Seems to me that little woman's unfashionable--mad about her own
husband!" said Jonson Ramer.

The curtain went up on the second act.

Claude had sat down in the stalls. In a moment Charmian slipped into a
seat at his side and touched his hand.

"Claude, where have you been?"

Her long fingers closed on his hand.

"Charmian!"

He looked excited and startled. He stared at her.

"What's the matter?"

His face changed.

"Nothing. It's all going well so far."

"Perfectly. Adelaide Shiffney's here."

"I know."

Charmian's fingers unclasped.

"You've seen her?"

"No, but I heard she was here with Jonson Ramer."

"Yes. I've--"

They fell into silence, concentrated upon the stage. In a few minutes
they were joined by Gillier, who sat down just behind them. With his
coming their attention was intensified. They listened jealously,
attended as it were with every fiber of their bodies, as well as with
their minds, to everything that was happening in this man-created world.

Charmian felt Gillier listening, felt, far away behind him, Adelaide
Shiffney listening. Gradually her excitement and anxiety became painful.
Her mind seemed to her to be burning, not smouldering but flaming. She
clasped the two arms of her stall.

Something went wrong on the stage, and the opera was stopped. The
orchestra died away in a sort of wailing confusion, which ceased on the
watery sound of a horn. Enid Mardon began speaking with concentrated
determination. Crayford and Mr. Mulworth came upon the stage.

"Where's Mr. Heath? Where's Mr. Heath?" shouted Crayford.

Claude, who was already standing up, hurried away toward the entrance
and disappeared. Charmian sat biting her lips and tingling all over in
an acute exasperation of the nerves. Behind her Armand Gillier sat in
silence. Claude joined the people on the stage, and there was a long
colloquy in which eventually Meroni, the conductor, took part. Charmian
presently heard Gillier moving restlessly behind her. Then she heard a
snap of metal