Poor Dick's affections are temporarily led astray
by the mercenary seductions of the leading lady in his opera, who has
learned the secret of his true identity and vast wealth, and means to
marry him under the cloak of disinterested affection. He gets bad advice
from his poet friend, too, who has dishonorable designs on the girl
up-stairs and so warns Dick against throwing himself away on a nobody,
of, possibly, doubtful virtue. It is, of course, essential to Sylvia
that Dick should ask her to marry him before he learns who she really
is, in order that she may be sure it isn't for her wealth that he is
seeking her.
This was the general lie of the land, though the thing was complicated,
of course, by minor intrigues, as for instance in the first act, when
Minim, the uncle, came to inquire of the successful composer what his
terms would be for introducing a song into his opera, extolling the
merits of Minim's newest brand of liquid face-powder. Then there was the
comic detective, whom Sylvia's frantic father had given the job of
finding her, and who, considering that he was the typical idiot
detective of musical comedy, came unaccountably close to doing it.
Pages:
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473