"That is assuming that running away needs some excuse," said she.

There was a considerable pause before he said, in a low tone:

"Ella, Ella, I know everything--that night. We were saved."

At this moment Mr. Linton entered the room. He was, after all, not late, he said: it wanted a minute still of being eight o'clock. He had just been at the telephone to receive a reply regarding a box at Covent Garden. In the earlier part of the day none had been vacant, he had been told; but the people at the box office promised to telephone to him if any became vacant in the course of the afternoon. He had just come from the telephone, and had secured a good enough box on the first tier. He hoped that Ella would not mind "Carmen"; there was to be a new /Carmen/.

Ella assured him that she could not fail to be interested in any /Carmen/, new or old. It was so good of him to take all that trouble for her, knowing how devoted she was to opera. She hoped that Herbert --she called him Herbert in the presence of her husband--was in a /Carmen/ mood.

"I'm always in a mood to study anything that's unreservedly savage," said he.

"There's not much reservation about our little friend /Carmen/," said Mr. Linton. "She tells you her philosophy in her first moment before you."

"There you are: /Misteroso e l'amore/--that's the philosophy of your pretty savage, Herbert."