"I may come back ... when I am divorced?" "That will never happen!" she persisted, vindictively. "She has tamed you ... you are a domestic animal ... a house pet ... like the cat and the poodle dog!" "_Au revoir_, Emma," he said, refusing to be irritated. "Not good-by!" She took up a thread, broke it with a vicious jerk, and let the ends float away. "Victorine, _depêche-toi donc_!" Beecher, who had started with the intention of extracting a legitimate revenge, had received little satisfaction from his two interviews. Nevertheless, he was not so naïve as to reject Emma Fornez’s advice. He went directly to Mrs. Craig Fontaine’s box. Louise, as though she had waited impatiently his coming, started at once from her chair, meeting him in the privacy of the antechamber. He was struck at once by the constrained tensity of her glance. "You are in the Gunthers’ box," she said, directly the first greetings were over. "Where is Bruce? Why didn’t he come with you?" "We separated. I went behind to see Madame Fornez..." he said lamely. She was not deceived by his answer, made a rapid calculation and said abruptly: "Teddy, tell me the truth. Don’t refuse me! ... You may be doing me a favor ... the greatest! ... Is Bruce engaged? That little girl in the box?" Between them there had been the fullest loyalty, and a confidence since school days. He was not ignorant, therefore, of her infatuation for his friend, though what dramatic turn it might have taken in the years of his absence, he could only speculate. "Yes, it is true," he said. "It is not to be known ... With you, Louise, it is different: you ought to know!" She sat down, and he was frightened by the swift, ashen pallor that rushed into her face. Alarmed, he made a movement towards her. "Wait!" she said, faintly. "There are two questions I must ask ... Did he, Bruce, send you to tell me this?" "No...." He hesitated, surprised at the question, adding: "That is, I think not...." "Is it to be public—immediately?" "No, not at once ... I am sure of that!" She nodded her head with a little relief, and, incapable of speech, raised her hand weakly as though to excuse herself, then laid it over her heart. He rose, turning his back, steadying himself. At the end of a long moment she touched him on the shoulder. "I will come ... tomorrow ... and call on your wife," she said, quietly. "Give her my very best wishes, will you? ... And ... thank you! ... You have done me a great service!..." When he reached his box Bruce was waiting for him. "You saw Louise?" he said directly. "Yes!" "You told her?" "Yes, I told her." "That was right!" They hesitated a moment, one whether to question, the other whether to explain. "I admire her as much as any woman," said Gunther, at last. "She made only one blunder ... At that, Fate was against her."