Page:Daskam--The imp and the angel.djvu/110

The Imp's Matinée "Aren't we respectable enough for you?" he demanded. "Good gracious! What do you want? Why, I'm going myself! Second-rate show, indeed!"

The Imp dashed up. "It isn't second-rate, truly!" he cried eagerly. "It's third-rate! Mr. Lee said so, when I asked to go! So there!"

Then they laughed and said, "Oh, well, if it's third-rate—" and lo and behold, they came along!

The Imp conducted them to the door of the theatre and went in ahead with the Tall Young Man. Coming down the aisle were a man and woman, and at sight of the Imp and his escort they stopped and stared. The Imp recognized them as his friends of the first and second acts.

"Oh, go back! go back!" he said eagerly. "There are lots of us at the theatre, now! There's lots more than thirty!" They turned and fled behind the curtain.

After a crowded session at the "box office" as the Tall Young Man called it, the procession poured in, laughing and talking. They filled the wooden settees and the four dingy boxes at the side of the stage, and then, with a burst of applause from the audience, in came the 84