MISS MABEL FAY.
The cab pulled up with a jerk underneath a long row of brightly burning
lights. We dismounted, and I followed Mr. Marx up a broad flight of
thickly carpeted stairs into a semi-circular corridor draped with crimson
hangings and dimly lit with rose-coloured lights. A faint perfume hung
about the place, and from below came the soft melody of a rhythmical
German waltz which the orchestra was playing. I almost held my breath,
with a curious mixture of expectation and excitement, as I followed Mr.
Marx and an attendant down the corridor.
The latter threw open the door of what appeared to be a little room and
we entered. Mr. Marx at once moved to the front, and, throwing the
curtains back, beckoned me to his side. I obeyed him and looked around in
wonder.
It happened to be a fashionable night and the place was crammed. On the
level with us--we were in a box--were rows of men and women in evening
attire; above, a somewhat disorderly mob in the gallery; and below, a
dense throng--at least, it seemed so to me--of seated people were
betraying their impatience for the performance by a continual stamping of
feet and other rumbling noises.
To a regular playgoer it was a very ordinary sight indeed; to me it was a
revelation. I stood at the front of the box, looking round, until Mr.
Marx, smiling, pushed a chair up to me and bade me sit down. Then I
turned towards the stage and remained with my eyes fixed upon the
curtain, longing impatiently for it to rise.
Alas for my expectations! When at last the time came it was a charming
picture indeed upon which I looked, but how different! A group of girls
in short skirts and picturesque peasant attire moving lightly about the
stage and singing; a man in uniform making passionate love to one of
them, who was coyly motioning him away with her hand and bidding him stay
with her eyes. A pretty picture it all made and a dazzling one. But what
did it all mean?
Mr. Marx had been watching my face, and leaned over towards me with a
question upon his lips.
"What does it all mean?" I whispered. "This isn't a play, is it? I don't
remember one like it."
"A play? No; it's a comic opera," he answered.
I turned away and watched the performance again. I suppose I looked a
little disappointed; but by degrees my disappointment died away. It was
all so fresh to me.
Towards the close of the first act, in connection with one of the
incidents, several fresh characters--amongst them the girl who was taking
the principal part--appeared on the stage. There was a little round of
applause and I was on the point of turning to make some remark to Mr.
Marx, when I heard a sharp, half-suppressed exclamation escape from his
lips and felt his hot breath upon my cheek.
I looked at him in surprise. He had risen from his chair and was standing
close to my elbow, leaning over me, with eyes fixed upon the centre of
the stage and an incredulous look on his pale face. Instinctively I
followed the direction of his rapt gaze. It seemed to me to be bent upon
the girl who had last appeared, and who, with the skirts of her
dark-green riding-habit gathered up in her hand, was preparing to sing.
He recovered from his surprise, or whatever emotion it was, very quickly,
and broke into a short laugh. But I noticed that he pushed his chair
farther back into the box and drew the curtains a little more forward.
"Is anything the matter, Mr. Marx?" I asked.
He shrugged his shoulders and frowned a little.
"Nothing at all. I fancied that I recognised a face upon the stage, but I
was mistaken. Good-looking girl, isn't she--the one singing, I mean?"
I thought that good-looking was a very feeble mode of expression, and I
said so emphatically. In fact, I thought her the most beautiful and most
graceful creature I had ever seen; and, as the evening wore on, I found
myself applauding her songs so vigorously that she glanced, smiling, into
our box, and Mr. Marx, who was still sitting behind the curtain, looked
at me with an amused twitching of the lips.
"Morton, Morton, this won't do!" he exclaimed, laughing. "You'll be
falling head over ears in love with that young woman presently."
I became in a moment very red and uncomfortable, for she had just cast a
smiling glance up at us and Mr. Marx had intercepted it. I was both
ashamed and angry with myself for having applauded so loudly as to have
become noticeable; but Mr. Marx seemed to think nothing of it.
"There is a better way of showing your appreciation of that young lady's
talents--Miss Mabel Fay, I see her name is--than by applause. See these
flowers?"
I turned round and saw a large bouquet of white azaleas and roses, which
the attendant must have brought in.
"You can give them to her if you like," Mr. Marx suggested.
I shook my head immediately, fully determined that I would do nothing of
the sort. But Mr. Marx was equally determined that I should. It was quite
the correct thing, he assured me; he had sent for them on purpose and I
had only to stand up and throw them to her. While he talked he was
writing on a plain card, which he pinned to the flowers and then thrust
them into my hand.
How it happened I don't quite know, but Mr. Marx had his own way. It was
the close of the act and everyone was applauding Mabel Fay's song. She
stood facing the house, bowing and smiling, and her laughing eyes met
mine for a moment, then rested upon the flowers which I was holding and
finally glanced back into mine full of mute invitation.
I raised my hand. Mr. Marx whispered, "Now!" And the bouquet was lying at
her feet. She picked it up gracefully, shot a coquettish glance up
towards me, and then the curtain fell, and I sat back in my chair,
feeling quite convinced that I had made an utter fool of myself.
About the middle of the third act Mr. Marx rose and walked to the door.
Holding it open in his hand for a moment, he paused and looked round.
"I am going to leave you for a few minutes," he said. "I shall not be
very long."
Then he went and I heard him walk down the corridor.
An hour passed and he did not return. The last act came, the curtain fell
and, with a sigh of regret, I rose to go. Still he had not come back.
I put on my coat and lingered about, uncertain what to do. Then there
came a knock at the box-door, but, instead of Mr. Marx, an attendant
entered, and handed me a note. I tore it open and read, hastily scrawled
in pencil:
"I am round at the back of the house. Come to me. The bearer will show
you the way.--M."