"I am so glad that you came," Goldwin told her. "For very selfish reasons, I mean. You appear, and you corroborate my statements. Now people can at last see and judge for themselves. The verdict is sure."
He said many more things in this vein, all uttered low, and all accompanied by his smile, that seemed either to mean volumes or to leave his true meaning adroitly ambiguous.
Mrs. Ridgeway Lee was in a somewhat near box. When Goldwin returned to her side, just as the curtain was falling on the last act, she accepted his escort to her carriage with a fine composure. He met Mrs. Van Horn, a little later, in the crush that always occurs along the Fourteenth Street lobby of our Academy when a full house disgorges its throng.
The two ladies talked together. Not far away from them stood Mrs. Diggs and Claire, each waiting for an absent husband to secure her carriage.
"What a contrast there is between them," Claire murmured to her companion. "One is so blonde and peaceful, the other so dark and restless."
"Yes, my dear Claire. Have you caught Cornelia's eye?"
"No. She does not appear to see me."
"She sees you perfectly. She has not yet made up her mind just how to act."
"I think that she means to cut me," said Claire, under her breath.
"Never," came the emphatic answer, so bass and gruff because of its vocal suppression that it produced odd contrast with Mrs. Diggs's bodily thinness. "To cut you would be to burn her ships. She has an object in knowing you. I'm afraid it's a dark one. But be sure that she is only making up her mind just how to know you. She will soon decide; she has already delayed too long, and she feels it. Be ready for a prompt change."