drafted into one or other of the travelling companies, and sent away
through the provinces; so that any awkwardness arising from her being in
the same theatre with himself, and he her only friend in England, to
whom she would naturally appeal in any emergency, would thus be
obviated.

"Nina," said he, as they were driving in a hansom to Sloane Street (all
her belongings being on the top of the cab), "Lehmann, our manager, is
to be at the theatre this afternoon, about some scenery, I fancy, and
there's a chance of our catching him if we went down some little time
before the performance. Would you come along and sing one or two things?
you might have the arrangement made at once."

"Will you go with me, Leo?"

"Oh, yes," he said, "I mean Mrs. Grey will take you, you know; for I
will try to get places for her and you in front afterwards; but I will
go with you as well. You won't be afraid?"

She laughed.

"Afraid?--no, no--what I can do I can do--there is no Pandiani to scold
me if they not satisfied--that is my own _beezness_--is it right?--oh, I
say to you, Leo, if you hear Pandiani when I refuse to go to Malta--you
think you know the Neapolitan deealet--dialect?--no, it is not good for
you to know all the wicked words of Naples--and he is old and
evil-tempered--it is no matter. But in this theatre there is no Pandiani
and his curses--"

"No, no, not curses, Nina," he said. "I see old Debernardi has taught