"But, Mr. Hermann Goetze, your agreement is with me, not with Sir Owen Asher."
"Quite so, Miss Innes, but—"
"If people don't care sufficiently for art to dine half-an-hour earlier, they had better stay away."
"But you see, Miss Innes, you're not in the first act; there are the other artistes to consider. The 'Venusberg' will be sung to empty benches if you insist."
It seemed for a moment as if Mr. Hermann Goetze was going to have his way; and Ulick, while praying that she might remain firm, recognised how adroitly Hermann Goetze had contrived to place her in a false position regarding her fellow artistes.
"I am quite willing to throw up the part; I can only sing the opera as it is written."
The conductor suggested a less decisive cut to Evelyn, and Mr. Hermann Goetze walked up and down the stage, overtaken by toothache. His agony was so complete that Evelyn's harshness yielded. She went to him, and, her hand laid commiseratingly on his arm, she begged him to go at once to the dentist.
Then some of the musicians said that they could hardly read the music, so effectually had they scratched it out.
"If the musicians cannot play the music, we had better go home," said Evelyn.
"But the opera is announced for to-morrow night," Mr. Hermann Goetze replied dolefully.