"Hush! Call me Nelly, if you must be Christian. I suppose you think you
may, now."
"I--I beg your pardon," he stammered, disconcerted.
"Don't look so gaspy--poor little thing! It shall be thrown back into the
water. Will you carry my bouquet?"
"With pleasure." He grasped it eagerly, and carried it towards the stage
door and a hansom.
"It wanted only that," she said. "Oh, the Show, the Show!"
"I don't understand you."
"Do I understand myself?" They got into the hansom. "Where shall we go?"
she repeated.
"Places all close at twelve on Saturday night."
"Ah, do they? Your hotel also?"
"No, of course one may eat at one's own hotel. If you don't mind going
there--"
"If _you_ don't mind, rather."
"I? Who is my censor?"
"Ah, the word admits I'm discreditable. Never mind, Bob. See how
Christian I am."
"No, no, I've felt it was all my doing. Indirectly I drove you to
it--oh, how you have weighed on me!"
"Really, I'd quite forgotten you."
He winced and gasped. "Hotel Belgravia," he called up through the
trap-door.
"Very strange you should find me," she said, as they glided through the
flashing London night.
"Not in the least. I knew you blindfold, so to speak. You forget how I
used to stand outside the drawing-room, listening to your singing."
"Eavesdropper!" she murmured. But he struck a tender chord--all the
tender chords of her twilight playing that now rose up softly and floated
around her.
"Eavesdropper if you like, who heard nothing that was not beautiful. And
so I hadn't to _look_ for you. As a matter of fact, I wasn't looking but
consulting my programme to know who number eleven was, when you began to
sing."
"If you _had_ looked you wouldn't have recognised me," she said, smiling.
"Probably not. The stage get-up would have blurred my memories."
She began to like him again: the oddness of it all was appealing.
"Nevertheless," she said, "it is strange you should just find me
to-night, for I--"
"No, it isn't," he interrupted eagerly. "I've been every night this
week."
"Ah, eavesdropping again," she said, touched.
"I wanted to be absolutely sure--and then I couldn't pluck up courage to
write to you."
"But you did to-night?"
"You looked so tired--I felt I wanted to protect you."
A sob came into her throat, but she managed to say coldly, "Was I very
bad?"
"To one who had seen you the other nights," he said with complimentary
candour.