Come!" she cried, throwing her arms round Miss Garth with a feverish gayety--"congratulate me on my success!" "I will congratulate you when you have got over it," said Miss Garth.
In half an hour more Magdalen had changed her dress; had joined the guests; and had soared into an atmosphere of congratulation high above the reach of any controlling influence that Miss Garth could exercise.
Frank, dilatory in all his proceedings, was the last of the dramatic company who left the precincts of the stage.

He made no attempt to join Magdalen in the supper-room--but he was ready in the hall with her cloak when the carriages were called and the party broke up.
"Oh, Frank!" she said, looking round at him as he put the cloak on her shoulders, "I am so sorry it's all over! Come to-morrow morning, and let's talk about it by ourselves." "In the shrubbery at ten ?" asked Frank, in a whisper.
She drew up the hood of her cloak and nodded to him gayly.

Miss Garth, standing near, noticed the looks that passed between them, though the disturbance made by the parting guests prevented her from hearing the words.

There was a soft, underlying tenderness in Magdalen's assumed gayety of manner--there was a sudden thoughtfulness in her face, a confidential readiness in her hand, as she took Frank's arm and went out to the carriage.

What did it mean?
Had her passing interest in him as her stage-pupil treacherously sown the seeds of any deeper interest in him, as a man?
Had the idle theatrical scheme, now that it was all over, graver results to answer for than a mischievous waste of time?
The lines on Miss Garth's face deepened and hardened: she stood lost among the fluttering crowd around her.