"This thing is between ourselves. Now, are you going to tell the people
all about when you received it?"
I smiled a little bitterly as I replied: "I am hardly likely to tell my
business affairs to people who do not speak to me."
He looked up quickly, for I stood all the time, and asked: "What's that,
don't speak to you? Were you not welcomed----"
I broke his speech with laughter, but he would not smile: "Were you not
properly treated? Who was lacking in courtesy?"
"Oh, please," I hurried, "don't blame anyone. You see there were no
introductions made, and of course I should have remembered that the
hospitality of the East is more--er--well, cautious than that of the
West, and besides I must look very woolly and wild to your people."
"Ah!" he broke in, "then in a measure the fault is mine, since worry and
trouble kept me away from the green-room. But Benot should have made
introductions in my place--and--well, I'm ashamed of the women! cats!
cats!"
"Oh, no!" I laughed, "not yet, surely not yet!"
Suddenly he returned to the part: "You will tell the people that you were
to play _Anne_ in the first place."
"But, Mr. Daly," I cried, "the whole company saw me receive the part of
_Blanche_."
He gnawed at the end of his mustache in frowning thought. "One woman to
whom it belongs refuses the part," he said; "another woman, who can't
play it, demands it from me, and I want to stop her mouth by making her
believe the part was given to you before I knew her desire for it--do you
see?"
Yes, with round-eyed astonishment, I saw that this almost tyrannically
high-handed ruler had someone to placate--someone to deceive.
"You will therefore tell the people you received _Anne_ last night."