At this moment by some subtle working of her mind light came to Martine, and the next moment she had whispered the forgotten name of the hall to Robert. Upon this Robert shot ahead of the others, and when Lucian caught up with him, he was standing in front of a corner drug-store.
"Come," he said, seizing Lucian's arm, "I'll show you where to go. We're ever so far out of our way. If you had left it all to me, we should have been there long ago."
Turning the corner beyond the drug-store, and walking a few steps along a street parallel to the one on which they had looked for the hall, the four young people were soon at the entrance of a large building, the lower story of which was occupied by a grocery shop.
In front of the shop was a group of half-grown boys.
"Got a ticket, Mister?" said one of them, holding the green pasteboard card to Lucian.
Lucian, who was really an amiable youth, had quickly recovered from his annoyance with Martine, and would not gratify Robert by showing vexation that the latter had been more successful in finding the hall. He suspected the truth--that Martine had helped Robert, and since they were now at the hall, what did it matter?
"Got a ticket, Mister?" A second boy held out his hand to Lucian.
"Of course, that's why we're here," replied Lucian. "Are you selling them?"
"No, we're giving them away. We want an aujence," was the astonishing response.
"We'll soon know, Martine," said Priscilla, following the two others up a long flight of dimly-lit stairs.
"Did you ever?" Martine gazed around the hall as they entered; "there are not ten people here."
"Just thirty." Priscilla was nothing if not accurate.
"But I thought Angelina said she had sold two hundred tickets, Martine."
"Expected to sell them, Lucian, though, to tell the truth, I thought she _had_ sold them."
"I'll wager she gave away half the seats that are occupied now. Those are Portuguese faces down in the front."
"I know that, Martine. You always had a foolish habit of getting rid of your allowance almost as soon as you received it."
"That reminds me," asked Robert, "is this a charitable performance? It would have been more charitable to let us stay quietly in our rooms. Just think what a fine four hours of study Lucian and I could have put in this evening."