“Oh, more than eighteen months ago. I think he was going to London, where he was to be a reporter on a paper, or something of that sort. Fancy, they say he was in the Foreign Legion in Algeria for some time, but I don’t believe it. He has been everywhere, and he never has a sou.”
“Yes; now I remember, I have seen him before,” said Emilie, with a yawn. “A curious customer.”
“Yes, that he is. But you see here, at the Hague, where he has relations, he knows he must be on his best behaviour, so we tolerate his presence.”
“Yes,” remarked Emilie, very philosophically, “you generally find a black sheep like that in every family.” [[43]]
Eline smiled, and slowly closed her fan.
The third act came to an end without her understanding much about the scena with Manoël, but the grand duo between Hermosa and Xaïma afforded her a clue: it was the mutual recognition of mother and daughter after the air—
“Debout, enfants d’Ibérie!”
and the curtain fell amid thunders of applause, and the two actresses were called to the front, and each received her share of bouquets.
“Mr. de Woude, do tell me what the plot is really about?” asked Eline, turning to Georges. “Je n’y vois pas encore clair.”
But Betsy proposed to go into the foyer, and so they rose and left their box. In the foyer, seated on a divan, Georges related to her the plot of the opera, to which Eline listened with more attention than she cared to show. Now she knew why Xaïma shuddered in Ben-Saïd’s presence, and she would have liked to see the auction of maidens in the first act, and the sale of Xaïma as slave in the second.