Only after Shade said that did the woman nod and open the door a little wider to let Shade and Matilda enter together.
As the Blonde Young Lady passed by her, the woman stared at Matilda's face for a moment.
"You'd better keep an eye on her, or sooner or later she'll run off with someone else. My son's wife ran off just like that."
Shade merely put on an awkward smile, then took Matilda's hand and continued deeper into the Opera House.
Perhaps to save electricity, the Opera House had not lit its lamps during the day. But portable Kerosene Lamps had been placed at intervals along the corridor, guiding visitors so they would not lose their way.
Shade did not sense any supernatural power here. Even those lamps were ordinary objects. Thus, the two made their way to the 2nd Floor and finally entered Performance Hall No. 1, the largest hall there.
Of course, "largest" only meant it was about one-third the area of a floor in Shade's home.
The curtains were drawn, but fortunately the Gas Lamps had been lit. All the hall's equipment had been piled against the walls, leaving only twenty chairs arranged in pairs to form a large circle.
Quite a few people had already arrived, but no one was speaking. Shade and Matilda casually chose two neighboring chairs and sat down. Only then did Shade take Little Mia from his arms and place her on his lap.
The Cat lay there lazily, unaware that she would most likely miss lunch today. As Shade looked around and observed the others, he found that most of them were around thirty. He and Matilda counted as the youngest "couple."
Among them, however, was a pair of men. Judging from the subtle movements they made while whispering