Letitia rose suddenly, and confronted me. "I can suggest nothing else," she asserted doggedly; "I seem unable to please you. Take tickets for anything you like."
"There seems to be a cook in everything," I declared dejectedly, "and I want to escape it. Don't be so angry with me, Letitia. In reality, it is for your sake as much as for my own. I guess I'll take tickets for the opera. It's Parsifal to-night. I never read musical criticisms, as they are so prohibitively prosy, but if you can assure me that there is no cook in Parsifal—"
"How ignorant you are, Archie! Parsifal is sacred, and deals with the Holy Grail."
"Still, they might sneak a cook in," I insisted with irony. "I wouldn't put them past it. Everything is adapted, nowadays, and grand opera artists would lend themselves so easily to the rôles of cooks. However, Parsifal seems safe. There is less risk about it than anything else. To be sure, Wagner is rather stupefying, and you remember, dear, that we had our first quarrel after hearing Siegfried. It made us both so cross."
"It doesn't need Siegfried to do that, nowadays," she said sadly.
"I'm a brute, Letitia. I know I am. Forgive me just this once, dear, and I'll try and be better. I—I'll look on the bright side of things, and—and I won't argue so much. I'll take tickets for Parsifal even though they cost ten dollars apiece. The idea of the Holy Grail appeals to me. It doesn't sound humorous, and Barrie and Zangwill seem to be dying to vent their sense of the ridiculous upon a suffering public. So it is understood, Letitia. Parsifal to-night, preceded by a dainty little dinner."
"The opera begins at five," said Letitia, "and I don't think I could leave the house at that hour. It is an uncomfortable hour."
"Quite right, dear. Let Parsifal adapt itself to us. It is absurd to make a toil of pleasure. Besides, one never understands anything at the opera, so it doesn't really matter at what time one gets there. We will not alter our plans. I shall wait at the office for you until a quarter to seven. Then dinner, a cab, and Parsifal. Say that this pleases you, Letitia."
"Oh, I'm glad, dear. I want to see you pleased. I hate to have my poor boy cross and disagreeable, and misanthropic. And I am anxious to hear Parsifal, so that I can say I have heard it. You understand, Archie. Perhaps we may not enjoy it while we are there, but I know we shall be delighted when it is over, and we can truthfully say that we have sat through it. There is no glory in sitting through an amusing play. But it is quite a feather in one's cap to go deliberately through a performance of Parsifal. It is a good idea, Archie."