“I saw her in A Woman of Honour, last cold weather,” Mrs. Barberry said; “I took a dinner-party of five girls and five subalterns from the Fort, and I said, 'Never again!' Fortunately the girls were just out, and not one of them understood, but those poor boys didn't know where to look! And no more did I. So disgustingly real.”
Alicia's eyes veiled themselves to rest on a ring on her finger, and a little smile, which was inconsistent with the veiling, hovered about her lips.
“I was in England last year,” she said; “I—I saw A Woman of Honour in London. What could possibly be done with it by an Australian scratch company in a Calcutta theatre! Imagination halts.”
“Miss Howe did something with it,” observed Mr. Lindsay. “That and one or two other things carried one through last cold weather. One supported even the gaieties of Christmas week with fortitude, conscious that there was something to fall back upon. I remember I went to the State ball, and cheerfully.”
“That's saying a good deal, isn't it?” commented Dr. Livingstone, vaguely aware of an ironical intention. “By Jove! yes.”
“Hamilton Bradley is good, too, isn't he?” Mrs. Barberry said. “Such a magnificent head. I adore him in Shakespeare.”
“He knows the conventions, and uses them with security,” Lindsay replied, looking at Alicia; and she, with a little courageous air, demanded—
“Is the story true?”
“The story of their relations? I suppose there are fifty. One of them is.”
Mrs. Barberry frowned at Lindsay in a manner which was itself a reminiscence of amateur theatricals. “Their relations!” she murmured to Dr. Livingstone. “What awful things to talk about!”