"In the most gagging scene of all, I've got to stand and look on the
whole time!" he said.
"Oh, no, Leo," Nina said, with mock sympathy, "you can listen to Miss
Burgoyne as she talks to you from behind her fan."
"Those two ladies I told you of," he continued, "who are coming on
Saturday night--I wonder what they will think of all that low-comedy
stuff. I begin to wish I hadn't asked them to come behind, but I thought
it might be a sort of inducement. Miss Cunyngham was very kind to me
when I was in the Highlands, and this was all I could think of; but I
don't think she has much of the frivolous curiosity of her
sisters-in-law; and I am not sure that her mother and she would even
care much for the honor of having tea in Miss Burgoyne's room. No, I
wish I hadn't asked them."
"Do you value their opinion so highly, then, Leo?" Nina asked, gently.
"Oh, yes," he said, with some hesitation--"that is, I shouldn't like
them to form any unfavorable impression--to go away with any scornful
feeling towards comic opera, and towards the people engaged in it; I
should like them to think well of the piece. I suppose I couldn't bribe
Collier to leave out the half of his gag, or the whole of it, for that
particular night.
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