The company was young, the night was wild, and
cheer was the word. She presently led the way upstairs. Foster, as soon as
he heard the first voices in the hall and the first footfalls on the bare
treads of the upper stairs, shut his door.
Lemoyne felt the big bare room--bare save for a piano and a fringe of
chairs and settles, large and small--as a stage; and he surmised that he,
the new-comer, was expected to exhibit himself on it. He became consciously
the actor. He tried now the assertive note, and now the quiet note; somehow
the quiet was the louder of the two. Pearson, who was in a conquering mood
tonight, scented a rival in the general attention, and one not wholly
unworthy. Pearson was the only one of the four in evening dress, and he
felt that to be an advantage. He, at least, had been properly attired to
meet the elegant visitor from abroad. As for poor Roddy, he had come in an
ordinary sack: perhaps it was partly this which had prompted M. Pelouse
(who was of course dressed for the platform) to find the boy such a paragon
of simple innocence.
All costumes were alike to Lemoyne; he had appeared in dozens.
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