Lord, if I'd
breathed a word of _that_ to Sally! No fool like an old fool, they say.
Bah! The foolishest thing in Christendom is a woman when she's in love."
And Captain Jeremy Rofflash plodded on, well pleased with himself. He
took the road which would lead him to Moorfields and Grub Street.
CHAPTER XX
"WHAT DID I TELL THEE, POLLY?"
Lavinia went to her first rehearsal in a strange confusion of spirits,
but came through the ordeal successfully. She was letter perfect, and
she remembered all Spiller's instructions. Mr. Huddy was pleased to say
that he thought she would do.
She left the theatre for her lodgings in Little Queen Street in a
flutter of excitement. Otway's "Orphan" might be dull and lachrymose,
the part of Serina might be insignificant, but to Lavinia the play was
the most wonderful thing. It meant a beginning. She had got the chance
she had longed for. She saw herself in imagination a leading lady.
But when she returned to her lodgings a reaction set in. She was
depressed. Life had suddenly become drab and dull. She was thinking of
Lancelot Vane, but not angrily, as was the case the previous night when
she walked away her head high in the air after seeing Sally
Salisbury--of all women in the world!--in his arms. She was in a tumult
of passion, and when that subsided tears of indignation rushed to her
eyes. She made no excuses for her recreant lover, no allowances for
accidents and misadventures.
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