'And so you found your way, dear?' said Dick, putting out his arm to draw
Kate towards him.
But he looked so very strange with the great patches of coarse red on his cheeks, and the deep black lines drawn about his eyes, that she could not conceal her repulsion, and guessing the cause of her embarrassment, he said, laughing:
'Ah! I see you don't know me! A good makeup, isn't it? I took a lot of trouble with it.'
Kate made no answer; but the sound of his voice soothed her, and she leaned upon his arm.
'Give me a kiss, dear, before we go up,' he said coaxingly.
Kate looked at him curiously, and then, laughing at her own foolishness, said, 'Wait until you have the soldier's dress on.'
At the top of the staircase the piled-up side-scenes made so many ways and angles that Kate had to keep close to Dick for fear of getting lost. However, at last they arrived in the wings, where gaslights were burning blankly on the whitewashed walls. A crowd of loud-voiced, perspiring girls in short fancy petticoats and with bare necks and arms, pushed their way towards the mysterious and ladder-like staircases and scrambled up them. Ange Pitou had taken off his cocked hat and was sharing a pint of beer with Clairette. It being her turn to drink, she said:
'Noe, hold my skirts in, there's a dear; this beer plays the devil with white satin.'
'It isn't on your skirts it will go if you spill it,' Ange replied, 'but into your bosom. Stop a second, and I'll give the bottom of the pot a wipe, then you'll be all right.'
In the meanwhile Pomponet and La Rivodière were engaged in a violent quarrel.