“May I ask if you have ever seen this piece?”
“No,” answered Farebrother, “but I fancy it’s very good. It’s an adaptation from the French, no doubt made over to suit American audiences, which are the most prudish in the world.”
Mr. Romaine indulged in one of his peculiar silent laughs. “It is thoroughly French,” he remarked, slyly.
This made Farebrother genuinely uncomfortable. He knew that not only Letty knew little of the theater, but that she was super-sensitive as to questions of propriety, and that this outrageous coquette would not stand one equivocal word. And the Colonel was as prudish as she. Farebrother would have hailed with delight then anything that would have broken up his party, and wished that he had suggested the Eden Musée.
Nothing escaped Mr. Romaine’s brilliant black eyes. He took in at once Letty’s white costume, and with malice aforethought, whispered to Miss Maywood:
“Pardon me, but is a white gown the correct thing for the theater, except in a box, for I see our young friend is radiant to-night as snow.”
“No,” answered Ethel, very positively, “it is the worst possible form, and if we were going in the same party, I should not hesitate to ask Miss Corbin to wear something quieter. Otherwise we would all be made conspicuous from her bad judgment.”
Miss Maywood had on her darkest and severest tweed frock, and her most uncompromising turban. Mr. Romaine, having got this much out of Miss Maywood, proceeded to extract amusement from Miss Corbin. He went over to her, and leaning down, whispered:
“My dear young friend, I wish you had persuaded Miss Maywood into wearing something more festive than her traveling gown on this occasion. Because ladies wear their bonnets at the theater, that is no reason why they should ransack their trunks for their oldest and plainest gowns, too.”
“I quite agree with you,” answered Letty, promptly, who was not ill-pleased to be complimented at Ethel Maywood’s expense. “She looks a regular guy. Of course if we were going together, I shouldn’t mind giving her a delicate hint, because it would scarcely be kind of me to carry off all the honors of costume on the occasion, and no doubt she would be much obliged to me. But I really can’t interfere now.”