"I daresay," said Beatrice, "you are wondering whether it is reasonable on the part of Lorelie and myself to stop your voyage and to summon you here merely to witness a play? The sequel will show. It is something more than a play that you are asked to witness: it is an experiment. If Lorelie were to choose a motto for her drama it would be the words of Hamlet:—
"'The play's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.'"
"I am altogether in the dark," said her companion, lugubriously.
"Be patient, Cousin Idris, and you shall have light anon."
"Cousin Idris again! Come, if we really are cousins, I shall exercise a cousin's privilege."
So saying he stole his arm around her, and turned her pretty face upward to his own. And Beatrice, unable to escape, submitted her lips to his, laughing, yet feeling more disposed to cry, knowing full well that there was another whom he would much rather have kissed.
She broke from his arms and essayed to hide her confusion in the study of a playbill printed on white satin. Of the dramatis personæ, four names only were familiar to Idris.
| Rosamond (Queen of the Lombards) | Lady Walden. |
| Alboin (King of the Lombards) | Lord Walden. |
| Cunimund (King of the Gepidæ) | Dr. G. Rothwell. |
| Paulinus (a bishop) | The Earl of Ormsby. |