He was not long in forming an
unqualified respect for them; it was not necessary for Joey Grinaldi
to tell him over and over again that they were good women.
If Christine saw him while she was in the ring, David was never able
to determine the fact for himself. He tried to catch her eye a hundred
times a day; he looked for a single smile that he might have claimed
for his own. Once he caught her in his arms when she stumbled after
leaping from the horse at the end of her act. It was very gracefully
done on his part. She whispered "Thank you," but did not smile, and
therein he was exalted. There was no day in which he failed to perform
some simple act of gallantry for her and Mrs. Braddock, always with an
unobtrusive modesty that pleased them. Sometimes he left spring
flowers for them; on other occasions he bought sweetmeats and pastry
in the towns and smuggled them into their hands, not without a
conscious glow of embarrassment and guilt. He was ever ready to seize
upon the slightest excuse to be of service to them, despite the fact
that they resolutely held aloof from him. The entire company of
performers understood the situation and cultivated a rather malicious
delight in abetting his clandestine courtesies.
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