Alice Sit-By-The-Fire

								

it locked.’
‘No, I suppose not,’ sadly enough. ‘You are quite right, Ginevra. But
we have made up for lost time. Every night since Monday, including the
matinee, has been a revelation.’
She closes her eyes so that she may see the revelations more clearly.
So does Ginevra.
‘Amy, that heart-gripping scene when the love-maddened woman visited
the man in his chambers.’
‘She wasn’t absolutely love-maddened, Ginevra; she really loved her
husband best all the time.’
‘Not till the last act, darling.’
‘Please don’t say it, Ginevra. She was most foolish, especially in the
crepe de chine, but we know that she only went to the man’s chambers
to get back her letters. How I trembled for her then.’
‘I was strangely calm,’ says Ginevra the stony hearted.
‘Oh, Ginevra, I had such a presentiment that the husband would call at
those chambers while she was there. And he did. Ginevra, you remember
his knock upon the door. Surely you trembled then?’
Ginevra knits her lips triumphantly.
‘Not even then, Amy. Somehow I felt sure that in the nick of time her
lady friend would step out from somewhere and say that the letters
were hers.’
‘Nobly compromising herself, Ginevra.’
‘Amy, how I love that bit where she says so unexpectedly, with noble
self-renunciation, “He is my affianced husband.”’
‘Isn’t it glorious. Strange, Ginevra, that it happened in each play.’
‘That was because we always went to the thinking theatres, Amy. Real
plays are always about a lady and two men; and alas, only one of them
is her husband. That is Life, you know. It is called the odd, odd
triangle.’
‘Yes, I know.’ Appealingly, ‘Ginevra, I hope it wasn’t wrong of me to
go. A month ago I was only a school-girl.’
‘We both were.’
‘Yes, but you are now an art student, in lodgings, with a latchkey
of your own; you have no one dependent on you, while I have a
brother and sister to--to form.’
‘You must leave it to the Navy, dear, to form Cosmo, if it can; and as
the sister is only a baby, time enough to form her when she can exit
from her pram.’
‘I am in a mother’s place for the time being, Ginevra.’
‘Even mothers go to thinking theatres.’
‘Whether mine does, Ginevra, I don’t even know. This is a very strange
position I am in, awaiting the return from India of parents I have not
seen since I was twelve years old. I don’t even know if they will like
the house. The rent is what they told me to give, but perhaps my
scheme of decoration won’t appeal to them; they may think my
housekeeping has been defective, and may not make allowance for my
being so new to it.’
Ginevra takes Amy in her arms. ‘My ownest Amy, if they are not both on
their knees to you for the noble way in which you have striven to
prepare this house for them--’
‘Darling Ginevra, all I ask is to be allowed to do my duty.’