"Wait for me here," he said to the driver. "I will be back in a moment." Then he re-entered the theater.
Grace meanwhile had conducted the woman to the ladies' dressing room, and placed her upon a couch.
She was a frail, insignificant looking creature, not at all the sort of person one would associate with threats of the kind that Ruth Morton had been receiving. She appeared to be greatly ashamed of her sudden collapse, and kept insisting, in spite of her evident weakness, that she was quite all right again, and wanted to go.
Grace, however, paid no attention to her protestations, but insisted that she remain quiet.
"The doctor will be here in a moment," she said. "You must wait quietly until he comes."
The woman, however, seemed determined to leave, and it was with a sigh of relief that Grace welcomed her husband's return.
Duvall came in hurriedly, as he did so taking a small brown bottle from his waistcoat pocket.
"Get me a glass of water," he said to the negro maid. The woman brought one at once.
Duvall took a tablet from the bottle and placed it in the glass, stirring the water about with the end of a lead pencil until the tablet was dissolved. Then he went up to the woman on the couch.
"Here--drink this," he commanded. "It will quiet your nerves."
The woman took the glass, her eyes regarding him with suspicion. Duvall, in his character of a physician, turned aside, and addressed a few words to Grace, fearing that in some way the woman might succeed in recognizing him. As a result both failed to see that instead of drinking the medicine he had given to her, the girl swiftly poured it upon the floor. When he again turned to her, she held the empty glass in her hand.
Duvall took it from her, and handed it to Grace.
"Come with me, Miss," he said. "I will see you home."
"It isn't necessary," the woman gasped. "I--I'm all right now."
"You have had a severe shock, Miss. As a physician, it is my duty to see that you arrive home safely. I have already engaged a cab. Come." He took the woman by the arm and in spite of her objections, raised her from the couch.
Suddenly her opposition vanished. She seemed glad of his assistance, and, leaning on his arm, made her way from the theater. Duvall was in high spirits. He fully believed that his plan had succeeded, that the woman at his side was the one who was responsible for the threats which had made Ruth Morton so wretched for the past few days.