Part 33 (1/2)
Not easily forgotten when once learned.”
”Very true,” Mrs. Eland said quietly. ”I believe my little sister learned it listening to mother and me saying it over and over.”
”Ah! yes,” Miss Pepperill observed. ”Your sister? I suppose much younger than you?”
”Oh, no; only about four years younger,” said Mrs. Eland, sadly. ”But I lost her when we were both very young.”
”Oh! ah!” was Miss Pepperill's abrupt comment. ”Death is sad--very sad,”
and she shook her head.
At the moment somebody spoke to the matron and called her away.
Otherwise she might have stopped to explain that her sister had been actually lost, and that she had no knowledge as to whether she were dead or alive.
The red-haired teacher and the two little Corner House girls went on to the children's ward.
CHAPTER XIX
A THANKSGIVING SKATING PARTY
The rehearsal of _The Carnation Countess_ that afternoon went most dreadfully.
”It really is a shame!” chuckled Neale to Agnes, as he sat beside her for a few minutes after the boys acquitted themselves very well in their part. ”It really is a shame,” he went on, ”what some of you girls can do to a part when it comes to acting. Talk about Hamlet's father being murdered to make a Roman holiday!”
”Hush, you ridiculous boy! That isn't the quotation at all,” admonished Agnes.
”No? Well, Hamlet's father was murdered, wasn't he?”
”I prefer to believe him a mythical character,” said Agnes, primly.
”At any rate, something as bad will happen to you, Neale O'Neil, if you revile the girls of Milton High,” declared Eva Larry, who was near enough to hear the boy's comment. ”Oh, dear me! I believe I could make something of that part of Cheerful Grigg, myself. Rose Carey is a regular stick!”
”Hear! hear!” breathed Neale, soulfully. ”I'm sorry for Professor Ware.”
”Well! he gave them the parts,” snapped Eva. ”I'm not sorry for him!”
The musical director was a patient man; but he saw the play threatened with ruin by the stupidity of a few. If his voice grew sharp and his manner impatient before the rehearsal was over, there was little wonder.
The choruses, and even the little folks' parts, went splendidly--with snap and vigor. Some of the bigger girls walked through their roles as though they were in a trance.
”I declare I should expect more animation and a generally better performance from marionettes,” cried the despairing professor.
Mr. Marks came in, saw how things were going, and whispered a few words to Professor Ware. The latter fairly threw up his hands.
”I give it up for to-day,” he cried. ”You all act like a set of puppets.
Pray, pray, young ladies! try to get into the spirit of your parts by next Friday. Otherwise, I shall be tempted to recommend that the whole play be given up. We do not want to go before the Milton public and make ourselves ridiculous.”
Neale said to Agnes as he walked home with her: ”Why don't you learn the part of Innocent Delight? I bet you couldn't do it so much better than Trix, after all.”