'Do you know,' said Mrs. Stuart presently, with a touch of reproach in
her voice, 'that she asked for you on the last night?'

'Did she?'

'Yes. We had just gone on to the stage to see her after the curtain had
fallen. It was such a pretty sight, you ought not to have missed it. The
Prince had come to say good-bye to her, and, as we came in, she was just
turning away in her long phantom dress with the white hood falling round
her head, like that Romney picture--don't you remember?--of Lady
Hamilton,--Mr. Forbes has drawn her in it two or three times. The stage
was full of people. Mr. Forbes was there, of course, and Edward, and
ourselves, and presently I heard her say to Edward, "Is Mr. Kendal here?
I did not see him in the house." Edward said something about your not
having been able to get a seat, which I thought clumsy of him, for, of
course, we could have got some sort of place for you at the last moment.
She didn't say anything, but I thought--if you won't mind my saying so,
Mr. Kendal--that, considering all things, it would have been better if
you had been there.'

'It seems to me,' said Kendal, with vexation in his voice, 'that there is
a fate against my doing anything as I ought to do it. I thought, on the
whole, it would be better not to make a fuss about it when it came to
the last. You see she must look upon me to some extent as a critical, if
not a hostile, influence, and I did not wish to remind her of my
existence.'

'Oh well,' said Mrs. Stuart in her cheery commonsense way, 'that evening
was such an overwhelming experience that I don't suppose she could have
felt any soreness towards anybody. And, do you know, she _is_ improved?