Page:A strange, sad comedy (IA strangesadcomedy00seawiala).pdf/115

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A STRANGE, SAD COMEDY
103

meeting of the whole party since they had parted on the boat that morning. Mr. Romaine, when he found that they were all bound for the same performance, grinned suggestively, and said to Farebrother:

"May I ask if you have ever seen this piece?"

"No," answered Farebrother, "but I fancy it's very good. It's an adaptation from the the French, no doubt made over to suit American audiences, which are the most prudish in the world."

Mr. Romaine indulged in one of his peculiar silent laughs. "It is thoroughly French," he remarked, slyly.

This made Farebrother genuinely uncomfortable. He knew that not only Letty knew little of the theater, but that she was super-sensitive as to questions of propriety, and that this outrageous coquette would not stand one equivocal word. And the Colonel was as prudish as she. Farebrother would have hailed with delight then anything that would have broken up his party, and wished that he had suggested the Eden Musée.

Nothing escaped Mr. Romaine's brilliant black eyes. He took in at once Letty's white