“It’s a treat to see any one enjoy anything as you enjoy this music,” she said to me. She spoke well, perhaps rather too carefully, and with a hint of the cockney accent.

“It runs in the family, you know, Mrs. Smith,” I replied, blushing for the ingenuousness which had pleased her.

“Don’t call me Mrs. Smith; call me Emmeline, as we are cousins. I shouldn’t at all like it if I mightn’t call you Carl. Carl is such a handsome name, and it suits you. Now, doesn’t it, Sully?”

“Yes, darling,” Sullivan answered nonchalantly. He was at the back of the box, and clearly it was his benevolent desire to give me fair opportunity of a t�te-�-t�te with his dark and languorous lady.