Here, it made the pitying company
shudder for her. "I think it's a silly, makeshift sort of a
speech," she said cheerfully, in which opinion the unhappy
playwright out in the audience hotly agreed. "It's a bit of
threadbare archness, and if I were to play Miss Lyston's part,
I'd be glad to have it changed!"
Potter looked dazed. "Is it your idea," he said in a ghostly
voice, "that I was asking for your impression of the dramatic
and literary value of that line?"
She seemed surprised. "Weren't you?"
It was too much for Potter. He had brilliant and unusual powers
of expression, but this was beyond them. He went to the chair
beside the little table, flung himself upon it, his legs
outstretched, his arms dangling inert, and stared haggardly
upward at nothing.
Packer staggered into the breach. "You interrupted the smile,
Miss--Mi--"
"Miss Malone," she prompted.
"You interrupted the smile, Miss Malone. Mr. Potter gives them
the smile there. You must count ten for it, after your cue. Ten--
slow. Count slow. Mark it on your sides, Miss--ah--Miss. 'Count
ten for smile.
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