Presently she paced slowly off through the crowd of deeply deferential little women.
"Immediately, eh ?" she queried, turning round again to Simonne.
Simonne seemed much worried.

The letter was from a young man to whom she had engaged herself for that evening.

She gave Mme Bron a scribbled note in which were the words, "Impossible tonight, darling--I'm booked." But she was still apprehensive; the young man might possibly wait for her in spite of everything.

As she was not playing in the third act, she had a mind to be off at once and accordingly begged Clarisse to go and see if the man were there.

Clarisse was only due on the stage toward the end of the act, and so she went downstairs while Simonne ran up for a minute to their common dressing room.
In Mme Bron's drinking bar downstairs a super, who was charged with the part of Pluto, was drinking in solitude amid the folds of a great red robe diapered with golden flames.