Suddenly her part came back to her.
“The rebels are flying,” she cried. “You’re safe—safe!”
Eliphalet, Colonel and father, caught her to his breast, smothering something she was saying about the gasometer.
“God has rescued us, my child—God is very good.”
And Manning, who had dashed up from the street a second before, was just in time to ring down.
“Exits all clear, Guv’nor,” he cried.
“Take up the curtain, then,” said Eliphalet; and when it rose he stepped forward to the footlights and, holding up his hand for silence, said:
“Ladies and gentlemen, will you kindly leave the theatre by the right and left emergency exits. There has been a fire in the street by the box-office, so this way will be more convenient.”
He bowed—turned with a pardonable instinct towards the box in which Raeburn and his friend were standing, and favoured them with a very slight smile.
The curtain fell and the audience, in some perplexity, but without panic, filed out of the theatre to the narrow alley at the back.