Seen amidst so many strange faces, the familiarity of Olga Lermontof's
clever but rather forbidding visage bred a certain new sense of
comradeship, and Diana made several tentative efforts to draw her into
conversation. The results were meagre, however, the Russian confining
herself to monosyllabic answers until some one--one of the musical
students--chanced to mention that she had recently been to the Premier
Theatre to see Adrienne de Gervais in a new play, "The Grey Gown," which
had just been produced there.
It was then that Miss Lermontof apparently awoke to the fact that the
English language contains further possibilities than a bare "yes" or "no."
"I consider Adrienne de Gervais a most overrated actress," she remarked
succinctly.
A chorus of disagreement greeted this announcement.
"Why, only think how quickly she's got on," argued Miss Jones. "No one
three years ago--and to-day Max Errington writes all his plays round her."
"Precisely. And it's easy enough to 'create a part' successfully if that
part has been previously written specially to suit you," retorted Miss
Lermontof unmoved.
The discussion of Adrienne de Gervais' merits, or demerits, threatened to
develop into a violent disagreement, and Diana was struck by a certain
personal acrimony that seemed to flavour Miss Lermontof's criticism of
the popular actress. Finally, with the idea of averting a quarrel
between the disputants, she mentioned that the actress, accompanied by
her chaperon, had been staying in the neighbourhood of her own home.
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