"Seems to me that little woman's unfashionable--mad about her own husband!" said Jonson Ramer. The curtain went up on the second act. Claude had sat down in the stalls. In a moment Charmian slipped into a seat at his side and touched his hand. "Claude, where have you been?" Her long fingers closed on his hand. "Charmian!" He looked excited and startled. He stared at her. "What's the matter?" His face changed. "Nothing. It's all going well so far." "Perfectly. Adelaide Shiffney's here." "I know." Charmian's fingers unclasped. "You've seen her?" "No, but I heard she was here with Jonson Ramer." "Yes. I've--" They fell into silence, concentrated upon the stage. In a few minutes they were joined by Gillier, who sat down just behind them. With his coming their attention was intensified. They listened jealously, attended as it were with every fiber of their bodies, as well as with their minds, to everything that was happening in this man-created world. Charmian felt Gillier listening, felt, far away behind him, Adelaide Shiffney listening. Gradually her excitement and anxiety became painful. Her mind seemed to her to be burning, not smouldering but flaming. She clasped the two arms of her stall. Something went wrong on the stage, and the opera was stopped. The orchestra died away in a sort of wailing confusion, which ceased on the watery sound of a horn. Enid Mardon began speaking with concentrated determination. Crayford and Mr. Mulworth came upon the stage. "Where's Mr. Heath? Where's Mr. Heath?" shouted Crayford. Claude, who was already standing up, hurried away toward the entrance and disappeared. Charmian sat biting her lips and tingling all over in an acute exasperation of the nerves. Behind her Armand Gillier sat in silence. Claude joined the people on the stage, and there was a long colloquy in which eventually Meroni, the conductor, took part. Charmian presently heard Gillier moving restlessly behind her. Then she heard a snap of metal and knew that he had just looked at his watch. What was Adelaide doing? What was she thinking? What did she think of this breakdown? Everything had been going so well. But now no doubt things would go badly. "Will they ever start again?" Charmian asked herself. "What can they be talking about? What can Miss Mardon mean by those frantic gesticulations, now by turning her back on Mr. Crayford and Claude? If only people--" Meroni left the stage. In a moment the orchestra sounded once more. Charmian turned round instinctively for sympathy to Armand Gillier, and caught an unpleasant look in his large eyes. Instantly she was on the defensive. "It's going marvellously for a first full rehearsal," she said to him. "Claude expected we should be here for nine or ten hours at the very least." "Possibly, madame!" he replied.