When Sheila reached the theater the rehearsal was brief and perfunctory. Reben explained the situation, and told her to take a good rest and give a performance at night. He had only one suggestion:
“Put more pep in the love-scenes and restore the clutch at the last curtain.”
Sheila gasped, “But I thought it was so much more artistic the way we played it last night.”
Reben laughed: “Ah, behave! When the curtain fell last night the thud could be heard a mile. The people thought it fell by accident. If the box-office hadn’t been closed they’d have hollered for their money back. You jump into Eldon’s arms to-night and hug as hard as you can. The same to you, Eldon. It’s youth and love they come to see, not artistic omissions.”
Sheila felt grave misgivings as to the effect of the restoration on her own arch-critic and private audience. But she rejoiced at being granted a holiday. She telephoned to Bret from a drug-store.
“I’ve got a day off, honey. Isn’t it gee-lo-rious!”
Then she sped to him as fast as a taxicab could take her. He had an avalanche of grievances waiting for her, but the sight of her beauty running home to him melted the stored-up snows. The chafing-dish was still in place after its all-night vigil, and it cooked a luncheon that rivaled quails and manna.
That afternoon Bret chartered a motor and they rode afar. They talked much of their first moonlight ride. It was still moonlight about them, though people better acquainted with the region would have called it afternoon sunlight. When Bret kissed her now she did not complain or threaten. In fact, she complained and threatened when he did not kiss her.
They dined outside the city walls and scudded home in the sunset. Sheila would not let Bret take her near the theater, lest he be seen. Indeed, she begged him not to go to the theater at all that night, but to spend the hours of waiting at the vaudeville or some moving-picture house. He protested that he did not want her out of his sight.
The reason she gave was not the real one: “Everybody always plays badly at a second performance, honey. I’d hate to have you see how badly I can play. Please don’t go to-night.”