"Take care, marm, if you please! Look out for that sand bank!"
Charmian withdrew from the frantic turmoil of work, and fled to visit the singers, and drink in more comfort. The only person who dashed her hopes was Miss Enid Mardon, who was a great artist but by nature a pessimist, ultra critical, full of satire and alarmingly outspoken.
"I tell you honestly," she said, looking at Charmian with fatalistic eyes, "I don't believe in it. But I'll do my best."
"But I thought you were delighted with the first act. Surely Monsieur Gillier told me—"
"Oh, I only spoke to him about the libretto. That's a masterpiece. Did you ever see such a dress as that elephant Haynes expects me to wear for the third act?"
"Really Miss Mardon's impossible!" Charmian was saying a moment later to Alston Lake.
"Why, Mrs. Charmian?"
"Oh, I don't know! She always looks on the dark side."
"With eyes like hers what else can she do? Isn't it going stunningly?"
"Alston, I must tell you—you're an absolute darling!"