"Audience! It's a congregation!" said Kitty Oldham savagely. "And I'm glad the obsequies are over. 'Mrs. Tankerville' is dead and buried--for mercy's sake, don't anyone mention her name to me again!" "You did awfully well, Miss Kitty--you reminded me of Lotta." "Of course," said Kitty with neat sarcasm. "Now go and tell Muriel she reminded you of Bernhardt!" "She looked more like Mrs. Langtry, didn't she?" said her companion diplomatically. "But Miss Pallinder now did have a kind of likeness to Bernhardt, she's so tall and thin. I thought she was stunning in that red dress and the diamonds--why didn't she put them on again? Right at the end there, where they find them, I mean?" "I don't know, unless she wanted to shorten up the last scene, and get through. She said she was going to give them back to her mother as soon as it was over." "Mrs. Pallinder's not wearing them, though. What became of Huddesley toward the last there?" "Mazie said he had to go, the doctor had sent for him or something, I didn't catch what it was. That was Bob in his clothes, you know." "Say, Teddy's had a lot of substitutes this evening, hasn't he? Do you suppose anyone suspects?" "Nobody's said anything to me anyhow." "Hello, here's Capoul!"[6] "Oh, Capoul--Rats!" said Bob, reddening with vexation. He had a secret conviction that a tenor voice lacked manliness, and mistook the felicitations of his friends for artfully disguised raillery. "People will be poking that 'La-_hee_-ho' business at me from now till doomsday, I suppose." "We were just wondering if anyone knew about Ted." "Guess not; I haven't heard anybody say a word about it." "Look here, how do you happen to be here yet, my son? I thought you said you had to go and meet Susie." "Well, I do, but not right away. I got one of the cab-drivers outside--there's about fifty of 'em, you never saw such a jam in your life--to go down to the drug-store and telephone, and they say the train from New York won't be in till two o'clock or after. Tell you, the telephone's an institution, isn't it? It's like Jules Verne coming true; they say they'll have 'em all over in private houses and everywhere before long. Have you seen Miss Pallinder? I've got this next waltz--oh, there she is with her mother." He drifted off, and Kitty gave her partner a meaning look. "Bob means business, I guess," said the latter, returning it. His hostess welcomed the young man with a wan vivacity. "How do you do, Mr. Carson? This is the first chance I've had to congratulate you. Everybody did _so_ well. You were especially good at the last." Undoubtedly Mrs. Pallinder was not her usual suave and confident self that night; her attention wandered. She had forgot what part Bob took, and there was no graciousness in her fixed smile; it might have been painted on her face like some of her other adornments.