A SUCCESSFUL PLAY
Mr. Hepworth came again to visit Boxley Hall, and while there heard about
the play, and became so interested in the preparations that he offered to
paint some scenery for it.
Patty jumped for joy at this, for the scenery had been their greatest
stumbling-block.
And so the Saturday morning before the performance the renowned New York
artist, Mr. Egerton Hepworth, walked over to Library Hall, escorted by a
dozen merry young people of both sexes.
As a scenic artist Mr. Hepworth proved a great success and a rapid
workman beside, for by mid-afternoon he had completed the one scene
that was necessary--a view of Mount Olympus as supposed to be at the
present date.
Though the actual work was sketchily done, yet the general effect was
that of a beautiful Grecian grove with marble temple and steps, and
surrounding trees and flowers, the whole of which seemed to be a sort of
an island set in a sea of blue sky and fleecy clouds.
At least, that is the way Elsie Morris declared it looked, and though Mr.
Hepworth confessed that that was not the idea he had intended to convey,
yet if they were satisfied, he was. The young people declared themselves
more than satisfied, and urged Mr. Hepworth so heartily to attend the
performance--offering him the choicest seats in the house and as many as
he wanted--that he finally consented to come if he could persuade his
friends at Boxley Hall to put him up for the night. Patty demurely
promised to try her best to coax her father to agree to this arrangement,
and though she said she had little hope of succeeding, Mr. Hepworth
seemed willing to take his chances.
At last the great day arrived, and Patty rose early that morning, for
there were many last things to be attended to; and being a capable little
manager, it somehow devolved on Patty to see that all the loose ends
were gathered up and all the minor matters looked after.
Kenneth Harper had been down twice to rehearsals, and had already become
a favourite with the Vernondale young people. Indeed, the cheery,
willing, capable young man couldn't help getting himself liked wherever
he went. He stayed with his aunt, Miss Daggett, when in Vernondale, which
greatly delighted the heart of the old lady.
The play was to be on Friday night, because then there would be no school
next day; and Friday morning Patty was as busy as a bee sorting tickets,
counting out programmes, making lists, and checking off memoranda, when
Pansy appeared at her door with the unwelcome announcement that Miss
Daggett had sent word she would like to have Patty call on her.
Unwelcome, only because Patty was so busy, otherwise she would have been
glad of a summons to the house next-door, for she had taken a decided
fancy to her erratic neighbour.
Determining she would return quickly, and smiling to herself as she
thought that probably she would be asked to do so, she ran over to Miss
Daggett's.
"Come in, child, come in," called the old lady from the upper hall, "come
right up here. I'm in a terrible quandary!"
Patty went upstairs, and then followed Miss Daggett into her bedroom.
"I've decided," said the old lady, with the air of one announcing a
decision the importance of which would shake at least two continents,
"I've decided to go to that ridiculous show of yours."
"Oh, have you?" said Patty, "that's very nice, I'm sure."
"I'm glad you're pleased," said the old lady grimly, "though I'm not
going for the sake of pleasing you."
"Are you going to please your nephew, Mr. Harper?" said Patty, not being
exactly curious, but feeling that she was expected to inquire.
"No, I'm not," said Miss Daggett curtly. "I'm going to please myself; and
I called you over here to advise me what to wear. Here are all my best
dresses, but there's none of them made in the fashions people wear
nowadays, and it's too late to have them fixed over. I wish you'd tell
me which one you think comes nearest to being right."
Patty looked in amazement at the great heap of beautiful gowns that lay
upon the bed. They were made of the richest velvets and satins and
laces, but were all of such an antiquated mode that it seemed impossible
to advise anyone to wear them without remodeling. But, as Miss Daggett
was very much in earnest, Patty concluded that she must necessarily make
some choice.
Accordingly, she picked out a lavender moiré silk, trimmed with soft
white lace at the throat and wrist. Although old-fashioned, it was plain
and very simply made, and would, Patty thought, be less conspicuous than
the more elaborate gowns.
"That's just the one I had decided on myself," said Miss Daggett, "and I
should have worn that anyway, whatever you had said."
"Then why did you call me over?" said Patty, moved to impatience by this
inconsistency.
"Oh, because I wanted your opinion, and I wanted to ask you about some
other things. Kenneth is coming to-night, you know."
"Yes, I know it," said Patty, "and I am very glad."
This frank statement and the clear, unembarrassed light in Patty's eyes
seemed to please Miss Daggett, and she kissed the pretty face upturned to
hers, but she only said: "Run along now, child, go home, I don't want
company now."
"I'm glad of it," Patty thought to herself, but she only said: "Good-bye,
then, Miss Daggett; I'll see you this evening."
"Wait a minute, child; come back here, I'm not through with you yet."
Patty groaned in spirit, but went back with a smiling face.
Miss Daggett regarded her steadily.
"You're pretty busy, I suppose, to-day," she said, "getting ready for
your play."
"Yes, I am," said Patty frankly.
"And you didn't want to take the time to come over here to see me, did
you?"
"Oh, I shall have time enough to do all I want to do," said Patty.
"Don't evade my question, child. You didn't want to come, did you?"
"Well, Miss Daggett," said Patty, "you are often quite frank with me, so
now I'll be frank with you, and confess that when your message came I did
wish you had chosen some other day to send for me; for I certainly have a
lot of little things to do, but I shall get them all done, I know, and I
am very glad to learn that you are coming to the entertainment."
"You are a good girl," said Miss Daggett; "you are a good girl, and I
like you very much. Good-bye."
"Good-bye," said Patty, and she ran downstairs and over home, determined
to work fast enough to make up for the time she had lost.
She succeeded in this, and when her father came home at night, bringing
Mr. Hepworth with him, they found a very charming little hostess awaiting
them and Boxley Hall imbued throughout with an air of comfortable
hospitality.
After dinner Patty donned her Diana costume and came down to ask her
father's opinion of it. He declared it was most jaunty and becoming,
and Mr. Hepworth said it was especially well adapted to Patty's style,
and that he would like to paint her portrait in that garb. This seemed
to Mr. Fairfield a good idea, and they at once made arrangements for
future sittings.
Patty was greatly pleased.
"Won't it be fine, papa?" she said. "It will be an ancestral portrait to
hang in Boxley Hall and keep till I'm an old lady like Miss Daggett."
When they reached Library Hall, where the play was to be given, Patty,
going in at the stage entrance, was met by a crowd of excited girls who
announced that Florence Douglass had gone all to pieces.
"What do you mean?" cried Patty. "What's the matter with her?"
"Oh, hysterics!" said Elsie Morris, in great disgust. "First she giggles
and then she bursts into tears, and nobody can do anything with her."
"Well, she's going to be Niobe, anyway," said Patty, "so let her go on
the stage and cut up those tricks, and the audience will think it's
all right."
"Oh, no, Patty, we can't let her go on the stage," said Frank Elliott;
"she'd queer the whole show."
"Well, then, we'll have to leave that part out," said Patty.
"Oh, dear!" wailed Elsie, "that's the funniest part of all. I hate to
leave that part out."
"I know it," said Patty; "and Florence does it so well. I wish she'd
behave herself. Well, I can't think of anything else to do but omit it. I
might ask papa; he can think of things when nobody else can."
"That's so," said Marian, "Uncle Fred has a positive genius for
suggestion."
"I'll step down in the audience and ask him," said Frank.
In five minutes Frank was back again, broadly smiling, and Mr. Hepworth
was with him.
"It's all right," said Frank. "I knew Uncle Fred would fix it. All he
said was, 'Hepworth, you're a born actor, take the part yourself'; and
Mr. Hepworth, like the brick he is, said he'd do it."
"I fairly jumped at the chance," said the young artist, smiling down into
Patty's bright face. "I was dying to be in this thing anyway. And they
tell me the costume is nothing but several hundred yards of Greek
draperies, so I think it will fit me all right."
"But you don't know the lines," said Patty, delighted at this solution of
the dilemma, but unable to see how it could be accomplished.
"Oh, that's all right," said Mr. Hepworth merrily. "I shall make up my
lines as I go along, and when I see that anyone else wants to talk, I
shall stop and give them a chance."
It sounded a little precarious, but as there was nothing else to do,
and Florence Douglass begged them to put somebody--anybody--in her
place and let her go home, they all agreed to avail themselves of Mr.
Hepworth's services.
And it was fortunate they did, for though the rest of the characters were
bright and clever representations, yet it was Mr. Hepworth's funny
impromptu jokes and humourous actions in the character of Niobe that
made the hit of the evening. Indeed, he and Kenneth Harper quite carried
off the laurels from the other amateurs; but so delighted were the
Vernondale young people at the success of the whole play that they were
more than willing to give the praise where it belonged.
Perhaps the only one in the audience who failed to appreciate Mr.
Hepworth's clever work was Miss Rachel Daggett. She had eyes only for her
beloved nephew, with an occasional side glance for her pretty young
neighbour.
After the entertainment there was a little dance for the young people;
and Patty, as president of the club, received so many compliments and so
much congratulation that it's a wonder her curly head was not turned.
But as she walked home between her father and Mr. Hepworth, she declared
that the success of the evening was in no way consequent upon her
efforts, but depended entirely on the talents of the two travelling
comedians from the city.