How the music throbbed and thrilled! It went up and up in a great crescendo. Elinor shivered and closed her eyes. When she opened them again the curtain was slowly rising. As the opera proceeded she was lost to the audience, lost to her friends, to everything except the story of Elsa of Brabant.
Nancy listened to the music, but her eyes were busy, also, looking at the beautiful dresses of the ladies in the boxes adjoining.
“Last night,” Billie was thinking, “we were two beggar girls dressed in rags, and to-night we are sitting in a box at the grand opera. I can hardly believe I am not dreaming.”
As for little Mary, she had but one thought. With all her heart and soul she was waiting for Lohengrin, the Silver Knight, who would presently appear in his swan boat, far down the winding stream. At last the curtain went down. There was a movement, a stir, a burst of conversation and laughter, and she heard Maria saying:
“Lord Glenarm, let me introduce you to my young friends from home.”
The four girls turned around quickly. It almost seemed to them that Lohengrin himself must have made a rapid change from his silver armor to evening clothes and walked into their box. But on second glance, they saw that Lord Glenarm was older than the stage Lohengrin and much finer looking, too. His brown hair was slightly gray at the temples; his gray eyes had blue lights in them; he had rather a beaked nose and a fine, square chin. He was very tall, and his shoulders stooped a little. The girls could not tell why he reminded them at first of the tall blonde young Lohengrin. Perhaps it was a certain seriousness in his face and strength of purpose.
“It is a great pleasure always to meet young ladies from America,” said Lord Glenarm, shaking hands with each of the Motor Maids, as Maria spoke their names. He had been presented to Miss Campbell, of course, first of all.
“You will be especially interested in these girls, Lord Glenarm,” Maria continued, “because they are such enthusiastic motorists. This remarkable child,” she went on, indicating Billie, “runs her own car, and last summer they motored across the American continent from Chicago to the Pacific Coast. What do you think of that?”
“Is it possible!” exclaimed Lord Glenarm. “Across the prairies and the Rocky Mountains and the great desert? You see, I know your country very well. How did you do it?”
Billie blushed. She had never spoken to a real lord in her life before, but this one seemed quite natural and like other people,—only handsomer and more gracious even than most other people.