'Yes, Dermot,' Torelli answered swiftly. 'Take Dr. and Mrs. Denby, will you. We'll follow in a few minutes.'
She hustled her brother and sister-in-law out with kindly firmness and then turned to the remaining three.
'Julian, you take Nicola. Peter—'
'Wait,' said Julian, and for once even Torelli paused.
He came slowly over to her and took both her hands in his, while she watched him with that wonderful, half startled expression which she sometimes used with such effect on the stage.
'What do I say to you, incomparable Gina Torelli?—except that I have to thank you for everything which matters most to me.'
'Don't exaggerate.' Her voice was suddenly husky, though full and thrilling still. 'It's unbecoming in an artist, and anyway, you make me want to cry.'
'No, you mustn't cry.' Smiling, he leant forward and kissed her. 'Thank you for Nicola, without whom I should be only half a man, and thank you for giving me the chance tonight to open the door to a great career.'
'Peter, have you got a handkerchief?' She held out her hand with an indescribably telling gesture, but it was Nicola who came to her, to kiss her tenderly and offer a handkerchief.
'Don't cry, darling Gina.' She smiled across Gina's dark bent head in complete understanding at Julian, for it was a wonderfully effective scene and almost entirely genuine. 'If we make you cry Uncle Peter will be cross with us.'
'It doesn't matter so much after a performance,' said her uncle in his matter-of-fact way. But his glance held affection as well as amusement.
'I'm all right now.' With her usual perfect timing, Torelli raised her head then and smiled faintly at them. 'Go now, children, and if you take longer to reach the Gloria than we do, no one will ask questions.'
Then she kissed them both and half pushed them from the room, turning then to say almost impatiently to her husband, 'Happiness is quite exhausting sometimes!'
In the now deserted corridor Julian and Nicola kissed each other, silently but in a way that said everything they needed to say. Then they went down to the stage door, where the patient crowds were waiting.
There was a great burst of cheering as Julian appeared in the doorway, and he looked almost startled for a moment. Then he smiled and submitted to the necessity of signing the inevitable autographs. As he stood there someone said feelingly, 'The greatest night of your life, I should think!'
'Yes,' he said, and he raised his head and smiled at the girl beside him. 'The greatest night of my life. Wish us both luck.' And taking Nicola by the arm, he shouldered his way through the crowd to his car.
The Curtain Rises Page 17
