Equally as a matter of course a good many of the spectators affirmed that it was intolerable that a play-actor should be smuggled into a company of amateurs, some of them belonging to the best families. And then to attempt a deception of the audience by suggesting that O'Brien was a gentleman—oh, the thing was unheard of! So said some of the ladies, adding that they thought it rather sad that Lady Susan was not better-looking.
But of the success of the entertainment there could not be a doubt. It was the talk of the town for a month, and every one noticed—even her own father—that Lady Susan was looking extremely thin and very pale.
Lady Sarah said that she had taken the diversion of the theatricals too seriously.
“I saw it from the first, my dear Sue,” she said.
Sue sprang from her chair, and it would be impossible for any one to say now that she was over pale.
“You saw it—you—what was it that you saw from the first?” she cried.
Lady Sarah looked at her and laughed.
“Ah, that is it—what was it that I saw from the first?” she said. “What I was going to say that I saw was simply that you were throwing yourself too violently into the production of the play. That was why you insisted on poor Lord B———'s getting his congé. It was a mistake—I saw that also.”
“When did you see that?”
“When I saw you taking part in that love scene with Mr. O'Brien.”