down the very rows in which the most influential critics were sitting. They
exchanged a salutation with their friends in the dress-circle, and, when
they were seated, looked around, making observations regarding the
appearance of the house; and all the while the actors were speaking. Hubert
trembled with fear and rage. Would these people never give their attention
to the stage? If they had been sitting by him, he could have struck them.
Then a line turned into nonsense by the actress who played Mrs. Holmes was
a lancinating pain; and the actor who played Captain Grey, played so slowly
that Hubert could hardly refrain from calling from his box. He looked round
the theatre, noticing the indifferent faces of the critics, and the women's
shoulders seemed to him especially vacuous and imbecile.

The principal scene of the second act was between Mrs. Holmes and the man
who had divorced her. He has-been driven to drink by the vile behaviour of
his second wife; he is ruined in health and in pocket, and has come to the
woman he wronged to beg forgiveness; he knows she has learnt to love
Captain Grey, but will not marry him, because she believes that once
married always married. There is only one thing he can do to repair the
wrong he has done--he will commit suicide, and so enable her to marry the
man she loves. He tells her that he has bought the pistol to do it with,
and the words, 'Not here! not here!' escape from her; and he answers, 'No,
not here, but in a cab. I've got one at the door.' He goes out; Captain
Grey enters, and Mrs. Holmes begs him to save her husband. While they are
discussing how this is to be done, he re-enters, saying that his conscience
smote him as he was going to pull the trigger. Will she forgive him? If she
won't, he must make an end of himself. She says she will.

In the third act Hubert had attempted to paint Mr. Holmes' vain efforts to
reform his life. But the constant presence of Captain Grey in the
household, his attempts to win Mrs. Holmes from her husband, and the