"I assure you," said Bob, with grave humor, "that when I sit in the pit I shall consider myself one of the aristocracy. Your wife is a capital doctor, Ned."
Very willingly I fell in with the thoughtful proposition, and as Maria insisted upon paying all the expenses out of her private purse I allowed her to do so, knowing that it would give her pleasure.
We arrived at the Criterion before the raising of the curtain and we saw a laughable comedy most admirably acted, which afforded us great enjoyment. I may say that the circumstance of the skeleton cat not accompanying us was the mainspring of my enjoyment. Could it have been, after all, an illusion? Was it really possible that the apparitions I had seen were the creations of my fancy? Bob whispered to me once:
"Has it accompanied us?"
"No," I whispered back, "I see nothing of it."
When we were outside the theater, and were ready to depart our separate ways, Bob said:
"Will you come and spend an hour with me to-morrow evening, Ned?"
"Yes, he will," said my wife; "it will do him good. It does not do, Mr. Millet, for a man to mope too much at home."
So I consented, and we shook hands, and wished each other good-night.