raiment and fearless demeanour, came in and took possession of an adjacent
table.

"What'll it be, Nell?"

"I'll take a dozen panned. I'm hungry enough to eat all the oysters that
ever came out of the sea. A rehearsal like that gives one an appetite."

"A dozen panned, and lobster salad for me, and two bottles of beer," was
the order of the first speaker to the waiter.

I recognized the faces as pertaining to the chorus of the opera company at
the ---- Theatre. I stopped whistling while I watched them.

Suddenly, like a delayed and multiplied echo of my own whistling, came in
a soft hum from one of the girls the notes of the doctor's tragically
associated strain of music.

The doctor and I exchanged glances. The girl stopped humming.

"I think that's the prettiest thing in the piece, Maude," said she.

Undoubtedly it was the comic opera to be produced at the ---- Theatre to
which she alluded as "the piece."

"Amazing," I said to the doctor. "Millocker composed the piece she's
talking about. Millocker never killed a wife in Paris. Nor would he steal
bodily from another. Perhaps the thing has been interpolated by the local
producer. It doesn't sound quite like Millocker, anyhow. I must see about
this."