The Jew only seemed to have been waiting to burst forth.
"Mith Barbour," he exclaimed, with a nervous movement of his hands, and lisping worse than ever, "I wantcher to thave me."
"To save you?"
"Yeth. Oh, don't look at me that way. I'm thpeakin' sense. Dontcher know what's happenin' to-night?"
She shook her head.
"What!" he almost screamed; "you meanter thay you've forgotten. It's the first night of the Dime Duchess. They're playin' the second act now, and, by Gott, the piece is damned already!"
He wiped his dripping forehead with a big scented handkerchief, and began to pace the floor again, flinging out his arms exuberantly.
"It's a conthpiracy from beginning to end," he cried, shrilly—"a conthpiracy! I tell yer, Lumpsden, I bin in front, and I know a lot of the faces. Fifty or sixty of Costello's people if there's vun. I'll haf the law on him. But cher can't turn out sixty people, eh! They've stopped Ormiston's encore twice; Mith Carthew's so frightened she can't sing a note. Three months' work and thousants of pounds gone to h—ll in a night, by Gott!"
"Stop swearing and raving, Joe, and tell the girl what you want."
Dollfus sobered himself with a great effort and wiped his mouth.