He had a long
nose and small, crafty eyes, and was deeply pitted with smallpox.
I made profuse apologies and he accepted them with suavity. It
then occurring to me that I was be having in a discourteous and
abjectly absurd manner, I made my way back to the box. I drew a
chair to Judith's side.
"You are giving me a captivating evening," she said, with a
smile.
"Whom are you captivating?" I asked, idly jesting. "Pasquale?"
"You are cruel," whispered Judith, with a flicker of her eyelids.
I flushed, ashamed, not having weighed the significance of my
words. All I could say was: "I beg your pardon," whereat Judith
laughed mirthlessly. I relapsed into silence. Turn followed
turn on the stage. While the curtain was lowered Carlotta sank
back with a little sigh of enjoyment, and nodded brightly at me.
"Do you remember," she said, turning to me, at a fresh fall of
the curtain, "when you brought me first? I said I should like to
live here. Wasn't I silly?"
She turned again, then suddenly rose to her feet and staggered
back to the back of the box, pointing outward, with an expression
of wild terror on her face.
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