"
Lionel (feeling very much like a stranger in this place) followed her
into Miss Burgoyne's room, where he found Mlle. Girond only too ready to
throw away the French novel she was reading. Nina had to disappear into
the dressing-room; but this small boy-officer in the gay uniform, with
his or her pretty gesticulation and charm of broken English, was quite
willing to entertain Mr. Moore, though at times she would forget all
about him and walk across to the full-length mirror and twist her small
moustache. She chatted to him now and again; she returned to the mirror
to touch her eyebrows and adjust her sash; she walked about or flicked
the dust from her shining Wellingtons with a silk handkerchief; again
she contemplated herself in the glass, and lightly sang,
"En debordant de Saint-Malo
Nos longs avirons battaient l'eau!"
Then she was called away for the beginning of the last act; and Nina,
having made the change necessary for her next appearance, came out from
the dressing-room and sat down.
"Oh, you are wicked, Leo," she said, as she contentedly crossed her
hands in her lap and looked at the young man with those friendly eyes,
"that you stayed away so long.
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