y there are a good many people who would not take their girls
to see a play by Dumas,' said Lady Kirkbank, 'but I make a point of
letting _my_ girls see everything. It widens their minds and awakens
their intelligence.'

'And does away with a good many silly prejudices,' replied Mr.
Smithson.

Lady Kirkbank and Lesbia were due at a Kensington garden-party after the
recital, and from the garden-party, for which any hour sufficed, they
went to show themselves in the Park, then back to Arlington Street to
dress for the play. Then a hurried dinner, and they were in their places
at the theatre in time for the rising of the curtain.

'If it were an English play we would not care for being punctual,' said
Lady Kirkbank; 'but I should hate to lose a word of Dumas. In his plays
every speech tells.'

There were Royalties present, and the house was good; but not so full as
it had been on some other nights, for the English public had been told
that Sarah Bernhardt was the person to admire, and had been flocking
sheep-like after that golden-haired enchantress, whereby many of these
sheep--fighting greedily for Sarah's nights, and ignoring all other
talent--lost some of the finest acting on the French stage, notably that
of Croizette, Delaunay and Febvre, in this very Demi-monde. Lesbia, who,
in spite of her affectations, was still fresh enough to be charmed with
fine acting and a powerful play, was enthralled by the stage, so wrapt
in the scene that she was quite unaware of her brother's presence in a
stall just below Lady Kirkbank's box. He too had a stall at the Gaiety.
He had come in very late, when the play was half over. Lesbia was
surprised when he presented himself at the door of the box, after the
fourth act.

Maulevrier and his sister had met very seldom since the young lady's
_debut_. The young Earl did not go to many parties, and the society he
cultivated was chiefly masculine; and as he neither played polo nor shot
pigeons his masculine pursuits did not bring him in his sister's way.
Lady Kirkbank had asked him to her house with that wide and general
invitation which is so easily evaded. He had promised to go, and he had
not gone. And thus Lesbia and he had pursued their several ways, only
crossing each other's paths now and then at a race meeting or in a
theatre.

'How d'ye do, Lady Kirkbank?--how d'ye do, Lesbia? Just caught sight of
you from below as the curtain was going down,' said Maulevrier, shaking
hands