Mr. Marx's Secret Part 12

Mr. Marx watched Reynolds leave the room and then shrugged his shoulders slightly.

"Honest, but stupid. Well, now you're in my charge, Morton, I must see whether I can't amuse you somehow. Ever been to the theatre?"

I could not help a slight blush as I admitted that I had never even seen the outside of one.

Mr. Marx looked at me after my admission as though I were some sort of natural curiosity.

"Well, we'll go if you like," he said. "There's a very good one here, I believe, for the provinces, and it will be a change for you."

"It will make us very late, won't it?" I ventured to say.

"Not necessarily. I suppose it will be over about half-past ten and the carriage can meet us at the door."

I said no more, for fear that he would take me at my word and give up the idea of going. In a few minutes Mr. Marx called for his bill and settled it, and, glancing at his watch, declared that it was time to be off. The waiter called a hansom, and we drove through the busy streets, Mr. Marx leisurely smoking a fragrant cigarette, and I leaning forward, watching the hurrying throngs of people, some pleasure-seekers, but mostly just released from their daily toil at the factory or workshop.

It was a wet night and the streets seemed like a perfect sea of umbrellas. The rain was coming down in sheets, beating against the closed gla.s.s front of our cab and dimming its surface, until it became impossible to see farther than the horse's head. I leaned back by Mr.

Marx's side with a sigh, and found that he had been watching me with an amused smile.

"Busy little place, Torchester," he remarked.

"It seems so to me," I acknowledged. "I have never been in any other town except Mellborough."

"Lucky boy!" he exclaimed, half lightly, half in earnest. "You have all the pleasures of life before you, with the sauce of novelty to help you to relish them. What would I not give never to have seen Paris or Vienna, or never to have been in love, or tasted quails on toast! But here we are at the theatre!"

CHAPTER XVI.

MISS MABEL FAY.

The cab pulled up with a jerk underneath a long row of brightly burning lights. We dismounted, and I followed Mr. Marx up a broad flight of thickly carpeted stairs into a semi-circular corridor draped with crimson hangings and dimly lit with rose-coloured lights. A faint perfume hung about the place, and from below came the soft melody of a rhythmical German waltz which the orchestra was playing. I almost held my breath, with a curious mixture of expectation and excitement, as I followed Mr.

Marx and an attendant down the corridor.

The latter threw open the door of what appeared to be a little room and we entered. Mr. Marx at once moved to the front, and, throwing the curtains back, beckoned me to his side. I obeyed him and looked around in wonder.

It happened to be a fas.h.i.+onable night and the place was crammed. On the level with us--we were in a box--were rows of men and women in evening attire; above, a somewhat disorderly mob in the gallery; and below, a dense throng--at least, it seemed so to me--of seated people were betraying their impatience for the performance by a continual stamping of feet and other rumbling noises.

To a regular playgoer it was a very ordinary sight indeed; to me it was a revelation. I stood at the front of the box, looking round, until Mr.

Marx, smiling, pushed a chair up to me and bade me sit down. Then I turned towards the stage and remained with my eyes fixed upon the curtain, longing impatiently for it to rise.

Alas for my expectations! When at last the time came it was a charming picture indeed upon which I looked, but how different! A group of girls in short skirts and picturesque peasant attire moving lightly about the stage and singing; a man in uniform making pa.s.sionate love to one of them, who was coyly motioning him away with her hand and bidding him stay with her eyes. A pretty picture it all made and a dazzling one. But what did it all mean?

Mr. Marx had been watching my face, and leaned over towards me with a question upon his lips.

"What does it all mean?" I whispered. "This isn't a play, is it? I don't remember one like it."

"A play? No; it's a comic opera," he answered.

I turned away and watched the performance again. I suppose I looked a little disappointed; but by degrees my disappointment died away. It was all so fresh to me.

Towards the close of the first act, in connection with one of the incidents, several fresh characters--amongst them the girl who was taking the princ.i.p.al part--appeared on the stage. There was a little round of applause and I was on the point of turning to make some remark to Mr.

Marx, when I heard a sharp, half-suppressed exclamation escape from his lips and felt his hot breath upon my cheek.

I looked at him in surprise. He had risen from his chair and was standing close to my elbow, leaning over me, with eyes fixed upon the centre of the stage and an incredulous look on his pale face. Instinctively I followed the direction of his rapt gaze. It seemed to me to be bent upon the girl who had last appeared, and who, with the skirts of her dark-green riding-habit gathered up in her hand, was preparing to sing.

He recovered from his surprise, or whatever emotion it was, very quickly, and broke into a short laugh. But I noticed that he pushed his chair farther back into the box and drew the curtains a little more forward.

"Is anything the matter, Mr. Marx?" I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders and frowned a little.

"Nothing at all. I fancied that I recognised a face upon the stage, but I was mistaken. Good-looking girl, isn't she--the one singing, I mean?"

I thought that good-looking was a very feeble mode of expression, and I said so emphatically. In fact, I thought her the most beautiful and most graceful creature I had ever seen; and, as the evening wore on, I found myself applauding her songs so vigorously that she glanced, smiling, into our box, and Mr. Marx, who was still sitting behind the curtain, looked at me with an amused twitching of the lips.

"Morton, Morton, this won't do!" he exclaimed, laughing. "You'll be falling head over ears in love with that young woman presently."

I became in a moment very red and uncomfortable, for she had just cast a smiling glance up at us and Mr. Marx had intercepted it. I was both ashamed and angry with myself for having applauded so loudly as to have become noticeable; but Mr. Marx seemed to think nothing of it.

"There is a better way of showing your appreciation of that young lady's talents--Miss Mabel Fay, I see her name is--than by applause. See these flowers?"

I turned round and saw a large bouquet of white azaleas and roses, which the attendant must have brought in.

"You can give them to her if you like," Mr. Marx suggested.

I shook my head immediately, fully determined that I would do nothing of the sort. But Mr. Marx was equally determined that I should. It was quite the correct thing, he a.s.sured me; he had sent for them on purpose and I had only to stand up and throw them to her. While he talked he was writing on a plain card, which he pinned to the flowers and then thrust them into my hand.

How it happened I don't quite know, but Mr. Marx had his own way. It was the close of the act and everyone was applauding Mabel Fay's song. She stood facing the house, bowing and smiling, and her laughing eyes met mine for a moment, then rested upon the flowers which I was holding and finally glanced back into mine full of mute invitation.

I raised my hand. Mr. Marx whispered, "Now!" And the bouquet was lying at her feet. She picked it up gracefully, shot a coquettish glance up towards me, and then the curtain fell, and I sat back in my chair, feeling quite convinced that I had made an utter fool of myself.

About the middle of the third act Mr. Marx rose and walked to the door.

Holding it open in his hand for a moment, he paused and looked round.

"I am going to leave you for a few minutes," he said. "I shall not be very long."

Then he went and I heard him walk down the corridor.

An hour pa.s.sed and he did not return. The last act came, the curtain fell and, with a sigh of regret, I rose to go. Still he had not come back.

I put on my coat and lingered about, uncertain what to do. Then there came a knock at the box-door, but, instead of Mr. Marx, an attendant entered, and handed me a note. I tore it open and read, hastily scrawled in pencil:

"I am round at the back of the house. Come to me. The bearer will show you the way.--M."

CHAPTER XVII.