She gave a very enticing look of surprise, and consented to smile back before she coyly looked away again.
“An erring husband, I presume.”
She admitted that it was in fact a husband who had failed her.
“But,” she added, “I’m afraid—I mean I expect he’ll [pg 88] come in after the next act. It’s so tiresome of him to disappoint me like this.”
Mr Bunker expressed the deepest sympathy with her unfortunate predicament.
“He has his ticket, of course?”
But it seemed that she had both the tickets with her, an arrangement which he immediately denounced as likely to lead to difficulties when her husband arrived. He further, in the most obliging manner, suggested that he should take the ticket for the other seat to the booking office and leave instructions for its being given to the gentleman on his arrival. The lady gave him a curious little glance that seemed to imply a mixture of doubt as to his motives with confidence in his abilities, and then with many thanks agreed to his suggestion. Mr Bunker took the ticket and rose at once.
“That I may be sure you are in good company while I am away,” said he, “permit me to introduce my friend the Baron Rudolph von Blitzenberg.”
And the Baron promptly took his vacant seat.
On his return Mr Bunker found his friend wreathed in smiles and engaged in the most animated conversation with the lady, and before the last act was over, he gathered from such scraps of conversation as reached his ears that Rudolph von Blitzenberg had little to learn in one department of a nobleman’s duties.