They started off towards Shaftesbury Avenue where the theatre was, and
as they went a funny little incident occurred. They were both too happy
to talk and Maggie was too happy even to think. Suddenly she was aware
that some one was coming towards her whom she knew. She looked and
tugged herself from that world of Martin and only Martin in which she
was immersed. It was the large, smiling, rosy-cheeked, white-haired
clergyman, Mr. Trenchard. Yes, certainly it was he. He had recognised
her and was stopping to speak to her. Martin moved on a little and
stood waiting for her. She was confused and embarrassed but pleased too
because he seemed glad to see her. He looked the very picture of a
well-dressed, kindly, genial friend who had known her all his life. He
was wearing a beautifully shining top-hat and his stiff white collar
gleamed. Yes, he was glad to see her and he said so. He remembered her
name. "Miss Cardinal," he called her. How had she been? What had she
been doing? Had she seen Mrs. Mark? He was staying with his sister at
Brown's Hotel in Somewhere--she didn't catch the name of the street.
His sister would be so glad if she would come and see them one day.
Would she come? He wouldn't tie her down, but she had only to write and
say she was coming ...
He took her hand and held it for a moment and looked in her eyes with
the kindliest friendliest regard. He was glad to have seen her. He
should tell his sister ...
He was gone and Maggie really could not be sure what she had said.
Something very silly she could be certain. Stupid the pleasure that his
few words had given her, but she felt once again, as she had felt in
Katherine Mark's drawing-room, the contact with that other world, that
safe, happy, comfortable, assured world in which everything was exactly
what it seemed. She was glad that he liked her and that his sister
liked her. Then she could not be so wild and odd and uncivilised as she
often was afraid that she was. She rejoined Martin with a little added
glow in her cheeks.
"Who was that?" Martin asked her rather sharply.
She told him.
"One of those humbugging parsons," he said. "He stood over you as
though he'd like to eat you."
"Oh, I'm sure he's not a humbug," she answered.
"You'd be taken in by anybody," he told her.
"Oh, no, I shouldn't," she said. "Now forget him."
And they did. By the time they had reached Piccadilly Circus they were
once more deep, deep in one another. They were back in their dark and
gleaming wood.
The Lyric Theatre was their destination. Maggie drew a breath as they
stepped into the hall where there stood two large stout commissionaires
in blue uniforms, gold buttons, and white gloves. People pushed past
them and hurried down the stairs on either side as though a theatre
were a Nothing. Maggie stood there fingering her gloves and feeling
lonely. The oil painting of a beautiful lady with a row of shining
teeth faced her. There were also some palms and a hole in the wall with
a man behind it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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