Her ladyship, as she uttered this with a slight accent of contempt, evidently did not deem them worthy the effort of a glance, and accordingly turned her glass toward the stage, the curtain having risen for the first act.
For a time the attention of all was attracted in the same direction.
Brownie sat as one entranced, forgetting the past, and living over again the exquisite delight which she had so often experienced in by-gone days.
“You are fond of the opera, Miss Douglas?” Wilbur whispered, when the curtain at length fell.
“Passionately,” she replied, turning her glowing face toward him; then added: “And, Mr. Coolidge, you have given me the first bit of unalloyed pleasure I have had since great misfortune came upon me.”
Her voice quivered, her eyes were dewy, and her breast heaved with the deliciousness of the hour.
“I would I could henceforth give you every joy of earth,” he murmured, tenderly, in her ear.
“Wilbur,” his mother said, in cold, hard tones, “will you come and arrange your sister’s cloak?”
She had watched his every movement, and her heart was in a tumult of rage at that artful girl for presuming to keep him at her side.
A meaning glance was exchanged between mother and daughter, as she made her request; and after the cloak was satisfactorily arranged, as he was about returning to his post, Isabel said: