And so it ended by them going through the pass-door together.



CHAPTER III. MR. MACKWAYTE MEETS AN OLD FRIEND

That night Nur-el-Din kept the stage waiting for five minutes. It
was a climax of a long series of similar unpardonable crimes in
the music-hall code. The result was that Mr. Mackwayte, after
taking four enthusiastic "curtains," stepped off the stage into a
perfect pandemonium.

He found Fletcher, the stage manager, livid with rage, surrounded
by the greater part of the large suite with which the dancer
traveled. There was Madame's maid, a trim Frenchwoman, Madame's
business manager, a fat, voluble Italian, Madame's secretary, an
olive-skinned South American youth in an evening coat with velvet
collar, and Madame's principal male dancer in a scanty Egyptian
dress with grotesquely painted face. They were all talking at the
same time, and at intervals Fletcher muttered hotly: "This time
she leaves the bill or I walk out of the theatre!"

Then a clear voice cried:

"Me voila!" and a dainty apparition in an ermine wrap tripped
into the centre of the group, tapped the manager lightly on the
shoulder and said:

"Allons! I am ready!"