Herriton. In some ways I
should enjoy it; but--excuse the suggestion--I don't think we
ought to go to cheap seats."
"Good gracious me!" cried Harriet, "I should never have
thought of that. As likely as not, we should have tried to
save money and sat among the most awful people. One keeps
on forgetting this is Italy."
"Unfortunately I have no evening dress; and if the seats--"
"Oh, that'll be all right," said Philip, smiling at his
timorous, scrupulous women-kind. "We'll go as we are, and
buy the best we can get. Monteriano is not formal."
So this strenuous day of resolutions, plans, alarms,
battles, victories, defeats, truces, ended at the opera.
Miss Abbott and Harriet were both a little shame-faced.
They thought of their friends at Sawston, who were supposing
them to be now tilting against the powers of evil. What
would Mrs. Herriton, or Irma, or the curates at the Back
Kitchen say if they could see the rescue party at a place of
amusement on the very first day of its mission? Philip,
too, marvelled at his wish to go. He began to see that he
was enjoying his time in Monteriano, in spite of the
tiresomeness of his companions and the occasional
contrariness of himself.
He had been to this theatre many years before, on the
occasion of a performance of "La Zia di Carlo." Since then
it had been thoroughly done up, in the tints of the
beet-root and the tomato, and was in many other ways a
credit to the little town. The orchestra had been enlarged,
some of the boxes had terra-cotta draperies, and over each
box was now suspended an enormous tablet, neatly framed,
bearing upon it the number of that box.
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