“How did you finally find your way back?” he asked.
“Marie——” began Nancy, and then stopped. If Marie-Jeanne had only not bound them over to secrecy! It was so difficult to tell the story and leave out the most interesting half.
“Another lodger, a girl, helped us,” said Billie.
Telemac left them, promising to call at Westminster Chambers in a few days, and presently they finished dinner and with many other diners rolled away in motor cars to the opera.
“I feel like a real society belle,” said Nancy, bridling with pride.
“I feel like a princess,” observed Elinor.
“Of course you do, Lady Clara Vere de Vere,” put in Billie.
“After we get into our box,” began Maria, “perhaps,—in the first intermission, you may,—I’m not at all certain, mind you, but you may meet a real live lord. How would you like that?”
“A lord!” they repeated.
“Yes, he is a friend of mine and he often comes into my box on nights when I go to the opera to hear other people sing.”