“You are sure the doctor told the truth?” she asked doubtfully. “Was she really not badly burnt?”
“No, not badly,” said Ralph. “Only one hand blistered and her wrist scorched.”
The summons came just at that minute for Myra and Helen Orme, and he seized the opportunity to escape, fearful lest she should ask further questions. He stood at the wings with his friend George Mowbray who was playing Antonio, watching in a dreamy way the ill-arranged dress which had been hastily contrived for Ivy’s understudy.
He would have missed the cue for his entrance had not George Mowbray pushed him forward, and it seemed to him that it was not his own voice but the voice of somebody else that uttered Bassanio’s speeches, while all the time he himself was away with Evereld, though his body mechanically went through the business of his part. Macneillie watched him with some anxiety, but before the play ended, the arrival of the ambulance and the necessity of seeing Ivy safely transferred to it drove all else from the manager’s mind. He refused to allow anyone but himself to take her to the hospital, feeling that she was under his charge, and troubled to remember that the poor child had not a relation in the world who could now befriend her.
“Do your best to get well quickly, my dear,” he said in his kindly voice when he took leave of her. “And don’t fret as to the future. You shall come back to the company whenever you like.”
Returning to the theatre he found the scene struck and all the house in darkness save for the light by the stage door.
“Is Mr. Denmead still in his dressing-room?” he inquired.
“No sir,” said the door-keeper. “He has been gone some time and Mr. and Mrs. Brinton with him.”
Macneillie ran upstairs to speak a word to Ivy’s understudy as to the dresses needed later in the week, then he walked slowly back to Kingsmead Terrace, but although he rang repeatedly no one came to answer the door.
He was just meditating a burglarious entrance by the kitchen window when at last he heard footsteps approaching and the latch was raised.