That Dr. Macrae should enter a theater was not the only wonder of that
night. The play happened to be "Julius Cæsar," and he soon became
enthralled with the large splendor of its old Roman life. He neither
heard nor saw one thing that he could disapprove; and he said to
himself, almost angrily, that it was wrong to prevent the happiness
which hundreds of thousands might receive from such an entertainment if
a mistaken public opinion did not prevent it. And, though this decision
was only rendered mentally, he felt in its rendering all the ministerial
intolerance of one who is deciding _ex cathedra_ a point of great moral
importance. The end of the performance found him in the foyer, watching
for Lady Cramer's appearance. He had not long to wait. She came forward,
leaning on the arm of her escort, and looking, as Dr. Macrae thought,
divinely beautiful. He went straight to her. His step was rapid, his
manner erect, even haughty, and, touching her hand gently, he said,
with ill-concealed emotion:
"Ada!"
She started and answered, "Why, Doctor Macrae! Is it possible? In a
theater, too! Oh, it is incredible!"
"I came to see you, not the play."
"To-night I am going to a supper and dance at Lady Saville's. Come to
breakfast with me--nine o'clock. See, we are delaying people behind
us--excuse me----" And as she went hurriedly forward she called back
with a smile, "Breakfast--nine o'clock."
He was so summarily dismissed that he could not answer; then the waiting
crowd made him feel their impatience, and with a sense of humiliation he
went rapidly into the gloomy street. What had happened to him? All his
spirit, all his pride and enthusiasm had vanished. Ada also had
vanished, the play was over, and he had been told to wait until morning.
He passed the night in a fever of passionate contradictions. He blamed
Ada in words which he had never used in all his life before, he praised
her in words equally extravagant and unusual, and he had pangs of such
cruel suffering, and thrills of such exquisite love and longing, as made
him understand that it is through the mind, and not the body, that the
greatest misery and the most enthralling happiness are experienced.
But, joyful or sorrowful, he never thought of prayer. If he had, there
was his visit to the theater to be explained, and at the bottom of his
soul's crucible there was yet a residuum of doubt on that score.
Besides, the theater was only a detail; the real trouble was the woman.
About four o'clock he fell into a sleep so deep that it was far below
the tide of dreams, and when he awakened he had barely time to prepare
himself for his early visit. However, the rest had refreshed him, and
when he left his hotel for Lady Cramer's residence there was not in all
London a man of greater physical beauty or more aristocratic bearing. He
was aware of this fact, and he smiled faintly as he looked in the
mirror, and thought a little contemptuously of any rival he might have.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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