Page:The Real Thing (New York & London, Macmillan & Co., 1893).djvu/185

Rh other people who were coming got into things of their own. He stopped her short as soon as she began to tell him how tremendously every one had been struck by the piece; he nailed her down to the question of Violet Grey. Had she spoilt the play, had she jeopardised or compromised it—had she been utterly bad, had she been good in any degree?

"Certainly the performance would have seemed better if she had been better," Mrs. Alsager confessed.

"And the play would have seemed better if the performance had been better," Wayworth said, gloomily, from the corner of the brougham.

"She does what she can, and she has talent, and she looked lovely. But she doesn't see Nona Vincent. She doesn't see the type—she doesn't see the individual—she doesn't see the woman you meant She's out of it—she gives you a different person."

"Oh, the woman I meant!" the young man exclaimed, looking at the London lamps as he rolled by them. "I wish to God she had known you!" he added, as the carriage stopped. After they had passed into the house he said to his companion: "You see she won't pull me through."

"Forgive her—be kind to her!" Mrs. Alsager pleaded.

"I shall only thank her. The play may go to the dogs."

"If it does—if it does," Mrs. Alsager began, with her pure eyes on him.