Unreal! Fantastic! Was this he, Edward Henry? Could it be his mother's son?
Still--"Matinées every Wednesday and Saturday." "_Every_ Wednesday and Saturday." That word implied and necessitated a long run--anyhow a run extending over months. That word comforted him. Though he knew as well as you do that Mr. Marrier had composed the advertisement, and that he himself was paying for it, it comforted him. He was just like a child.
"I say, Cunningham's made a hit!" Mr. Marrier almost shouted at him as he entered the managerial room at the Regent.
Then he remembered. She was the girl who played the Messenger. She had only three words to say, and to say them over and over again; and she had made a hit!
"Oh! Well!" Marrier drawled. "What would you expect?"
"That's just what _I_ said!" observed Edward Henry.
"You did, did you?" Mr. Marrier exclaimed, as if extremely interested by this corroboration of his views.
Carlo Trent strolled in; he remarked that he happened to be just passing. But discussion of the situation was not carried very far.
That evening the house was nearly full, except the pit and the gallery, which were nearly empty. Applause was perfunctory.
"How much?" Edward Henry inquired of the box-office manager when figures were added together.
"Of course," said Mr. Marrier, "in the height of the London season, with so many counter-attractions--! Besides, they've got to get used to the idea of it."
Edward Henry did not turn pale. Still, he was aware that it cost him a trifle over sixty pounds "to ring the curtain up" at every performance--and this sum took no account of expenses of production nor of author's fees. The sum would have been higher, but he was calculating as rent of the theatre only the ground-rent plus six per cent on the total price of the building.
What disgusted him was the duplicity of the first-night audience, and he said to himself violently, "I was right all the time, and I knew I was right! Idiots! Chumps! Of course I was right!"
On the third night the house held twenty-seven pounds and sixpence.
"Naturally," said Mr. Marrier, "in this hot weathah! I never knew such a hot June! It's the open-air places that are doing us in the eye. In fact I heard to-day that the White City is packed. They simply can't bank their money quick enough."