Did I not call thee Polly from the
very first?"
"Yes, indeed, sir. I've never forgotten it. I hope you'll always call me
Polly."
"Make your mind easy as to that. Why, if my dreams come true, half
London will some day be calling you Polly, too."
"I don't know what you mean, sir."
"Of course you don't. I'm not always sure that I know what I _do_ mean.
But never mind. Let us take a stroll on the heath. On such a summer
night as this it is a shame to be cooped up betwixt four walls. Besides,
I want to talk with you."
Manager Palmer bade Lavinia good-night with an air very different from
that with which he met her earlier in the evening. Her success and Gay's
evident friendship had worked wonders. He was quite deferential.
As Lavinia and Gay passed through the dimly lighted vestibule to the
entrance a man from among the audience stole after them. He was very
pale and his pallor accentuated his projecting cheek bones and the
hollows above, from the depths of which his large eyes gleamed with a
glassy light. Evidently in ill health, he could hardly have kept pace
with the couple he was shadowing had they not been walking very slowly.
"Everything is in our favour," Gay was saying. "Fortune has sent you
here at the right moment. You can act and you can sing. _I_ know it, but
John Rich and the Duchess of Queensberry must know it as well. Both your
acting and singing must be put to the proof, and you must show her grace
that she hasn't wasted her money.
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