Letitia rose suddenly, and confronted me. "I can suggest nothing else," she asserted doggedly; "I seem unable to please you. Take tickets for anything you like." "There seems to be a cook in everything," I declared dejectedly, "and I want to escape it. Don't be so angry with me, Letitia. In reality, it is for your sake as much as for my own. I guess I'll take tickets for the opera. It's _Parsifal_ to-night. I never read musical criticisms, as they are so prohibitively prosy, but if you can assure me that there is no cook in _Parsifal_--" "How ignorant you are, Archie! _Parsifal_ is sacred, and deals with the Holy Grail." "Still, they might sneak a cook in," I insisted with irony. "I wouldn't put them past it. Everything is adapted, nowadays, and grand opera artists would lend themselves so easily to the rôles of cooks. However, _Parsifal_ seems safe. There is less risk about it than anything else. To be sure, Wagner is rather stupefying, and you remember, dear, that we had our first quarrel after hearing _Siegfried_. It made us both so cross." "It doesn't need _Siegfried_ to do that, nowadays," she said sadly. "I'm a brute, Letitia. I know I am. Forgive me just this once, dear, and I'll try and be better. I--I'll look on the bright side of things, and--and I won't argue so much. I'll take tickets for _Parsifal_ even though they cost ten dollars apiece. The idea of the Holy Grail appeals to me. It doesn't sound humorous, and Barrie and Zangwill seem to be dying to vent their sense of the ridiculous upon a suffering public. So it is understood, Letitia. _Parsifal_ to-night, preceded by a dainty little dinner." "The opera begins at five," said Letitia, "and I don't think I could leave the house at that hour. It is an uncomfortable hour." "Quite right, dear. Let _Parsifal_ adapt itself to us. It is absurd to make a toil of pleasure. Besides, one never understands anything at the opera, so it doesn't really matter at what time one gets there. We will not alter our plans. I shall wait at the office for you until a quarter to seven. Then dinner, a cab, and _Parsifal_. Say that this pleases you, Letitia." "Oh, I'm glad, dear. I want to see you pleased. I hate to have my poor boy cross and disagreeable, and misanthropic. And I am anxious to hear _Parsifal_, so that I can _say_ I have heard it. You understand, Archie. Perhaps we may not enjoy it while we are there, but I know we shall be delighted when it is over, and we can truthfully say that we have sat through it. There is no glory in sitting through an amusing play. But it _is_ quite a feather in one's cap to go deliberately through a performance of _Parsifal_. It is a good idea, Archie."