248 ANGEL PAVEMENT

'1 don't see that/' said Norman stiffly. "Mine are
Row F, fourteen and fifteen. And we were here first,
They must have made a mistake at the box office."

Miss Matfield had risen from her seat. People were
looking round at them. If there was anything she hated,
it was this stupid sort of scene.

The second large determined man, who had nothing
like the amount of room to stand in his bulk demanded
and deserved, now made a number of impatient noises.
These noises goaded his friend into more direct action.

"Here, come on/' he said roughly, "let's have a look
at your tickets. Here are mine. Now let's have a look
at yours." He almost snatched them out of Norman's
hand. The instant he saw them, he cried triumphantly:
"There y'are. Balcony Stalls, Balcony Stalls. These
aren't Balcony Stalls. Cor I—you're in the wrong part
of the theatre, boy, in the wrong part of the theatre."

"Wouldjer believe it!" cried the second man con-
temptuously.

"Cor! Up there you want to be, right up there, boy."

"Sorry. I didn't know." Poor Norman was very
flustered now. Miss Matfield might have been sorry for
him, but she wasn't. She was furious. Even after they
had left the seats and were pushing their way back to the
gangway, the two brutes were still talking about it and
laughing and making contemptuous noises. Then as
she arrived, scarlet, in the gangway, she ran into a little
party of three that was waiting to be shown to its place.
The first was a tall man with a bristling moustache,
obviously a foreigner; the second was a youngish girl,
very smart and pretty; and the third, who was still inter-
T7tfwing the girl with the chocolates was—yes, no other
-Mr. Goispie, rather flushed, very jovial. There was