Chapter 37

Lord Coombe was ushered into the little drawing-room by an extremely
immature young footman who--doubtless as a consequence of his
immaturity--appeared upon the scene too suddenly. The War left one only
servants who were idiots or barely out of Board Schools, Feather said.
And in fact it was something suggesting "a scene" upon which Coombe was
announced. The athletic and personable young actor--entitled upon
programmes Owen Delamore--was striding to and fro talking excitedly.
There was theatrical emotion in the air and Feather, delicately flushed
and elate, was listening with an air half frightened, half pleased. The
immaturity of the footman immediately took fright and the youth turning
at once produced the fatal effect of fleeing precipitately.

Mr. Owen Delamore suddenly ceased speaking and would doubtless have
flushed vividly if he had not already been so high of colour as to
preclude the possibility of his flushing at all. The scene, which was
plainly one of emotion, being intruded upon in its midst left him
transfixed on his expression of anguish, pleading and reproachful
protest--all thrilling and confusing things.

The very serenity of Lord Coombe's apparently unobserving entrance was
perhaps a shock as well as a relief. It took even Feather two or three
seconds to break into her bell of a laugh as she shook hands with her
visitor.

"Mr. Delamore is going over his big scene in the new play," she
explained with apt swiftness of resource. "It's very good, but it
excites him dreadfully. I've been told that great actors don't let
themselves get excited at all, so he ought not to do it, ought he, Lord
Coombe?"

Coombe was transcendently well behaved.

"I am a yawning abyss of ignorance in such matters, but I cannot agree
with the people who say that emotion can be expressed without feeling."
He himself expressed exteriorly merely intelligent consideration of the
idea. "That however may be solely the opinion of one benighted."

It was so well done that the young athlete, in the relief of relaxed
nerves, was almost hysterically inclined to believe in Feather's adroit
statement and to feel that he really had been acting. He was at least
able to pull himself together, to become less flushed and to sit down
with some approach to an air of being lightly amused at himself.

"Well it is proved that I am not a great actor," he achieved. "I can't
come anywhere near doing it. I don't believe Irving ever did--or
Coquelin. But perhaps it is one of my recommendations that I don't
aspire to be great. At any rate people only ask to be amused and helped
out just now. It will be a long time before they want anything else,
it's