It is my impression that I was the first to notice him, and my attention
was directed to him by the curious behavior of two men who sat directly
in front of me. Except for their observations concerning him he might
easily have escaped my notice. But as the entertainment offered me was
so far removed from my understanding my interest was focused upon the
personnel of those members of the audience who chanced to be seated
nearest me. My dear father was in the habit of saying that observation
of the human race is the truest form of education and I have ever
diligently tried to follow whatever precepts he laid down. And so this
evening I had in turn observed a stout person in a beaded gown, a pair
of young soldiers in red coats, and then the two men directly in front
of me. They were unobtrusive in appearance, but palpably of Latin
extraction. Their clothing was nondescript and they would have passed
unnoticed in a crowd. One wore a little black mustache and the other
bore a slight scar near his left ear. As I looked at them I perceived
that they were giving even less attention to the picture than myself,
and seemed to be furtively searching for something out in the vast area
of semidarkness ahead of us. Suddenly one clutched the other by the arm
and spoke.
"There he is!" he said in a low tone, speaking in French.
Instantly both became alert. Almost imperceptibly the man with the scar
contrived to point without raising his hand. But I followed the
direction of his companion's eyes, and made out the objective, a young
man who sat on the curve of the orchestra seats just under the balcony,
below us. His position was such that when he turned his head it was
possible to see his profile against the exit light beyond. And it was a
profile one would not easily forget. I at once thought of Romeo--that
daring young Italian lover who met so unfortunate an end, and whose
tragic story was one of the secret absorptions of my girlhood. Yet this
young man even in the dimness of the theater conveyed a sense of
strength which had not been convincing to me in the actor whom I had
once seen in that part. He sat well above his neighbors in height, and
there was a certain swing and rhythm to his broad shoulders as he swayed
with amusement at the projection of the cinematograph that conveyed
remarkable resiliency and buoyant youth or, as I fear my charge would
express it, "pep." He was a gentleman, I could see that, of unusual
elegance, and attractive enough to command my attention without what
followed on the part of the two other observers. Both spoke in French.
"Sapristi! He will not escape this time!" said the man with the
mustache, pitching his voice very low. "The eel!"
"Will you do for him at the door?" whispered the other. "Or as he
attempts to reach the hotel?"
"I have something better than that," said the first. "We know he has it
on him. The hotel may be too late. He must not get to the theater door
before we do--or else----"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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