The stage had
taught him this grace also. In his day, an actor who had three words to
say, such as, "My lord's carriage is waiting," came on the stage with the
right arm thus elevated, delivered his message in the tones of a falling
dynasty, wheeled like a soldier, and retired with the left arm pointing
to the sky and the right hand extended behind him like a setter's tail.
Left to herself, Mabel was uneasy. "Ernest is so warm-hearted." This was
the way she put it even to herself. He admired her acting and wished to
pay her a compliment. "What if I carried him the verses?" She thought she
should surely please him by showing she was not the least jealous or
doubtful of him. The poor child wanted so to win a kind look from her
husband; but ere she could reach the window Sir Charles Pomander had
entered it.
Now Sir Charles was naturally welcome to Mrs. Vane; for all she knew of
him was, that he had helped her on the road to her husband.
_Pomander._ "What, madam! all alone here as in Shropshire?"
_Mabel._ "For the moment, sir."
_Pomander._ "Force of habit. A husband with a wife in Shropshire is so
like a bachelor."
_Mabel._ "Sir!"
_Pomander._ "And our excellent Ernest is such a favorite!"
_Mabel._ "No wonder, sir!"
_Pomander._ "Few can so pass from the larva state of country squire to
the butterfly nature of beau."
_Mabel.
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