Half an hour later Mrs. Schoville bustled in, with Corliss in her wake.
"That hill! The last of my breath!" she gasped, pulling off her mittens.
"Never saw such luck!" she declared none the less vehemently the next
moment.
"This play will never come off! I never shall be Mrs. Linden! How can
I? Krogstad's gone on a stampede to Indian River, and no one knows when
he'll be back! Krogstad" (to Corliss) "is Mr. Maybrick, you know. And
Mrs. Alexander has the neuralgia and can't stir out. So there's no
rehearsal to-day, that's flat!" She attitudinized dramatically: "'_Yes,
in my first terror! But a day has passed, and in that day I have seen
incredible things in this house! Helmer must know everything! There
must be an end to this unhappy secret! O Krogstad, you need me, and I--I
need you_,' and you are over on the Indian River making sour-dough bread,
and I shall never see you more!"
They clapped their applause.
"My only reward for venturing out and keeping you all waiting was my
meeting with this ridiculous fellow." She shoved Corliss forward. "Oh!
you have not met! Baron Courbertin, Mr. Corliss. If you strike it rich,
baron, I advise you to sell to Mr. Corliss. He has the money-bags of
Croesus, and will buy anything so long as the title is good. And if you
don't strike, sell anyway. He's a professional philanthropist, you know.
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