Page:Dale - A Marriage Below Zero.djvu/295

289 opera; not that it mattered much. The occupants of the boxes paid very little attention to what was going on upon the stage. They talked and laughed and recognized one another; opera-glassed the other side of the house, and commented upon each new arrival within range of their vision. It was a lively scene, at any rate.

Mr. and Mrs. Donaldson pretended to be very fond of Wagner, and I believe they imagined that they were. Being strangers in the city they had few friends to recognize, and were tolerably interested in the opera. Mrs. Donaldson's costume proved to be positively prudish. There were others that were so much more astonishing, that I felt quite sorry for her. She had started out prepared to astonish the natives, and lo! it was the natives who were astonishing her.

I treasured up a few descriptions with which to regale Arthur when I went home. I imagined I heard his hearty laugh, and that phrase of his, "Your speeches always amuse me so, Elsie."

Dear old man! How pleasant the future looked, stretched out before us! What happiness