But just as we expected to see her sweetheart jump up on to the platform, one of the other blue-coated, red-cravated boys came up in answer to a nod from Captain Holiday, bearing under his arm a large cardboard placard. This he put up, carefully, in the number-stand at the side of the piano. The word upon it in large scarlet letters was "Extra."
Everybody in the hall murmured it aloud. Vic's carrying voice rose above all the others.
"'Extra'? Now what's this goin' to be? Surprise turn, eh?" she said.
She was right.
With an arresting jerk it brought me out of the mood in which I was beginning to forget that there was a concert going on about me at all. It brought me straight back to where I was, in the entertainment hall of Captain Holiday's Hospital, in the middle of a crowd of eager, enjoying people.
Truly it was to be a startler to me, the surprise turn that came on next!
CHAPTER XIX
THE SURPRISE TURN
"Cold eyelids that hide like a jewel
Hard eyes that grow soft for an hour,
The heavy white limbs and the cruel
Red mouth like a venomous flower,
When these are gone by with their glories,
What shall rest of thee then, what remain,
Oh wicked and sombre Dolores."
—SWINBURNE.
There swept down towards the impromptu foot-lights an apparition tall and beautiful. Dressed as a Spanish lady, it was a study in black, white, and red. Black was the mantilla draped so filmily over the glossy black hair, black was the sequined gown that clung to the slim shape, black was the fan that waved, beckoned, hid, revealed and hid again in a series of gestures, each more perfectly and subtly coquettish than the last.