'Thank you, dear, I trust not. Good-bye.'
CHAPTER XXXVIII
Rehearsing
'How did you get on at the rehearsal today?' Edith asked.
Bruce was looking rather depressed.
'Not very well. You can't think how much jealousy there is in these things! When you rehearse with people day after day you begin to find out what their real characters are. And Mitchell always had a very nasty temper. Of course, he says it's quick and soon over. He thinks that's the best kind to have. I think he's rather proud of it. The fact is he has it so often that it's as bad as if it were slow and not soon over. First of all, you know, there was a kind of scene about whether or not I should shave for the part of the footman. He said I ought. I declared I wouldn't ruin my appearance just for the sake of a miserable little part like that; in fact, I might say for a few minutes in a couple of hours during one evening in my life! At last we compromised. I'm to wear a kind of thing invented by Clarkson, or somebody like that, which gums down the moustache, so that you don't notice it'
'But you don't notice it, anyhow, much.'
'What do you mean by that?'
'I don't mean anything. But I never heard of anybody noticing it. No-one has ever made any remark to me about it.'
'They wouldn't take the liberty. It can't have passed unnoticed, because, if it had, why should Mitchell ask me to shave?'