Part 39 (2/2)
Clearly he could not have offered ht of Rose Euclid, as the cousin of a girl as wealthy and as sympathetic as Elsie April To do so would have been to insult Elsie Yet he felt guilty, none the less An odd situation! The delicate tones of Elsie's weak, whispering, thrilling voice on the scaffolding haunted hisfor the curtain to ascend
There was an outburst of sedate applause, and a turning of heads to the right Edward Henry looked in that direction Rose Euclid herself was bowing from one of the two boxes on the first tier Instantly she had been recognized and acknowledged, and the clapping had in no wise disturbed her Evidently she accepted it as a matter of course How famous, after all, she must be, if such an audience would pay her such a ly in white She seeraceful, much more handsome, more in accordance with her renown She was at hohtness of publicity The i career had survived the eclipse in the United States Who could have guessed that some ten days before she had landed heart-broken and ruined at Tilbury from the _Minnetonka_?
Edward Henry was impressed
”She's none so dusty!” he said to hi of the Five Towns The phrase was a high co you like over thirty It measured the extent to which he was iuilty He had to drop his eyes, lest hers should catch theramme, which announced ”The New Don Juan,” a play ”in three acts and in verse”--author unna of the curtain began Edward Henry's torture and bewilderment The scene disclosed a cloth upon which was painted, to the right, a vast writhing purple cuttle-fish whose finer tentacles were lost above the prosceniu patch with a hole in it He referred to the programme, which said: ”Act II or A castle in a forest”; and also, ”Scenery and costuton, ARA” The cuttle-fish, then, was the purple forest, or perhaps one tree in the forest, and the oblong patch was the crie remained ehts were unlit and that rays calanced round nobody had blenched Quite confused, he referred again to the progra by Cosures of no particular sex glided into view, and at the first words which they uttered Edward Henry's heart seemed in apprehension to cease to beat A fear seized him A few more words and the fear became a positive assurance and realization of evil ”The New Don Juan” was simply a pseudonym for Carlo Trent's ”Orient Pearl”!
He had always known that it would be Ever since deciding to accept the invitation he had lived under just thathiain the programme Only one character bore a name familiar to the Don Juan story, to wit ”Haidee,” and opposite that name was the name of Elsie April He waited for her--he had no other interest in the evening--and he waited in resignation; a young feer”) es and ejaculated to the hero and his friend, ”The Woman appears” But it was not Elsie that appeared Six tied and ejaculated, ”The Woman appears,” and each ti--the heralding of the seventh and highest heroine of this drath appear
And Edward Henry became happy He understood little more of the play than at the historic breakfast-party of Sir John Pilgrim; he ell confirmed in his belief that the play was exactly as preposterous as a play in verse must necessarily be; his manly contempt for verse was more firmly established than ever--but Elsie April ure between the castle and the forest; her voice did really set up physical vibrations in his spine He was deliciously convinced that if she re, just so long could he gaze thereat without surfeit and without other desire
The e With despair he saw her depart, and the close of the act was ashes in his mouth
The applause was trereeted the plate-se Empire, but it was far more than sufficiently enthusiastic to startle and shock Edward Henry In fact, his cold indifference was so conspicuous amid that fever that in order to save his face he had to clap and to sht crossed hisit like the shudder of a distant earthquake that presages complete destruction:
”Are the ideas of the Five Towns all wrong? Ah he had often admitted to himself that he was a provincial, he had never done so with sincerity: but always in a e
III
”Did you ever see such scenery and costumes?” someone addressed him suddenly, when the applause had died down It was Mr Alloyd, who had advanced up the aisle from a back row of the stalls
”No, I never did!” Edward Henry agreed
”It's wonderful how Givington has et away from the childish realis ridiculous”
”You think so!” said Edward Henry, judicially ”The question is--has he?”
”Do you mean it's too realistic for you?” cried Mr Alloyd ”Well, you _are_ advanced! I didn't know you were as anti-representational as all that!”
”Neither did I!” said Edward Henry ”What do you think of the play?”
”Well,” answered Mr Alloyd, low and cautiously, with a sorin, ”between you and me I think the play's bosh”