The examination had taken place early in May, but the summer term was
nearly over before news of the results arrived. When it came, it made
but a small sensation. The school had tired of waiting. Not only was its
own more intimate examination drawing near, but its many heads were
filled, to the exclusion of all else, with the excitements and rivalries
of the summer theatricals.
The school play was an institution. Of late years--ever since she had
joined the staff indeed--it had grown into an annual personal triumph
for Miss Hartill.
Clare was blessed--cursed--with that sixth sense, the _sens du théâtre_.
Her own nature was, in essence, theatrical; her frigid and fastidious
reserve warring incessantly with her irrepressible love of the scene for
its own sake. She was aware of the trait and humiliated by its presence
in her character. Usually she would curb her inclination with a severity
that was in itself histrionic: at times she indulged it with voluptuous
recklessness.
As a girl, the stage had appealed to her strongly; but her excessive
squeamishness, with her acute sense of personal, bodily dignity, closed
it to her as a career. Also her love of power. Though she knew little of
stage life she had sufficient intuition to gauge correctly what she
might become. Successful necessarily--dominant never. And she required a
dais. But the compelling woman, she knew, is successful through her
combination of intellectual strength with sexual charm. She must not
scruple to use all the weapons at her service. Clare had told herself
that there were some weapons to which she would never condescend. If
sting had lain in the fact that, though she would, they were not hers to
use, she did not acknowledge it, even to herself. Resolutely she put
from her the idea of fostering a useless talent; and the desire to
exploit it, save surreptitiously in social intercourse, dulled as she
grew older.
Nevertheless, the yearly plays were to Clare a source of excitement and
gratification. She alone was responsible for the production. In five
successful years they had become an event, a festival--not only to the
school, but to the entire neighbourhood. Two, and then three public
performances were given each summer, and the proceeds benefited the
school charities. _As You Like It_, _Twelfth Night_, _Verona_, and _The
Merchant of Venice_, followed upon the _Midsummer Night's Dream_, and
exhausted the list of entirely suitable plays; but after some
hesitation, Clare had devised for her next venture scenes from _King
John_. Several forms were studying the period, the Sixths and Fifths
were reading the play, politically also it was apropos. (Clare had ever
sound reasons to gild her decisions.) Privately she had been slightly
embarrassed by the fact that the classes she supervised had that year
proved themselves unusually poor in dramatic ability. She could depend,
indeed, on a score of keen and capable children, but in Louise Denny
alone had she glimpsed an actress who could do her credit. The child's
physique precluded her from rôles that, otherwise, she could easily have
filled, but as Prince Arthur, she could be made the central,
unforgettable figure of an otherwise trite performance. "_King John_,"
quoth Clare; "decidedly, the very play." And _King John_ was chosen.
Since the beginning of the term, with Clare as generalissimo and Alwynne
most ingenious of adjutants, staff and school had worked
enthusiastically. Costumes were finished, staging painted and planned,
and the various scenes were, at length, receiving their final polish.
Alwynne was responsible for the interpretation of the minor parts, while
Clare, in her spare time, devoted herself to the principals, attacking
alternately the exaggerations of Agatha's "Constance," Marion's stolid
"Hubert," a certain near-sighted amiability in the spectacled "King
John."
Clare was a born stage-manager, patient, resourceful, compelling. The
children trusted her; she had the habit of success. Her air of authority
cushioned them, denied the possibility of failure. Clare, wholly in
earnest, Clare at usual hours, intimate and relaxed, Clare appealing,
exhorting, inspiring, was irresistible. She got what she wanted from
them and was not ill content. She knew to the last ounce their
capabilities.
With Louise alone she had difficulties. The child was almost too easily
trained. Responsive, quickly fired or chilled, she was, in fact, too
delicately and completely attuned to Clare herself. Clare could be
crude: she had her gusty moods: the little æolian harp quivered to
snapping point before them. Originally this extreme sensitiveness had
fascinated Clare; she felt like a musician exploring the possibilities
of an unknown instrument; but she tired of it in time. As Louise became
saturated with the stronger personality, she had, in her passionate
desire to satisfy Clare, grown into her mere replica; reproducing her
phraseology, voicing her opinions, reflecting her moods, stifling, in
the exquisite delight of abnegation, all in her that had originally
attracted the older woman. That the effect had been, first to amuse,
then to irritate, finally to bore Clare's fickle humour, was natural
enough. Clare, had she cared, could have guided the child, despite the
great disparity of age, into a pleasant path of affection and
friendship, but that she did not choose. She was disappointed, and
showed it: and there, for her, the matter ended. That she was in any way
responsible, she would not admit.
She did not, indeed, fully realise the extent of the change in Louise
until the rehearsals began. For all her growing indifference, in spite
of the marked deterioration that automatically it had caused in the
girl's work, she had still a high and just opinion of her capabilities.
She was positive that as Prince Arthur, Louise would give a fine and
original performance, and anticipated with amused interest her initial
rendering of the character.
At the first rehearsal Louise did not disappoint her. She was neither
stiff nor self-conscious, and her acting, which proved to be entirely
instinctive, carried conviction. Though Clare worked from the head, she
could appreciate the more primitive method, but even then, the character
as portrayed by Louise amazed her. The deliberate pathos, the cloying
charm, did not seem to exist for Louise. She played as in an ecstasy of
terror. The text, Clare knew, could permit the reading, and the
conception interested her; but the temptation to criticise, alter and
improve, was natural. Here and there, as rehearsals progressed, she
pulled and patched and patted--quite genuinely in the interest of the
play as a whole. But the result was discouraging. The Louise of former
days would have defended her own version, delighting Clare with shy
impudences and flashes of insight, naïve parries and counter-attacks,
till between them they had attained notable results. But the sparkle had
been drilled out of Louise. She was humble, anxiously acquiescent,
agreeing with every alteration, accepting every suggestion, however
foreign to her own instinctive convictions, while the vividness faded
slowly from her reading, leaving it lifeless and forced.
"It's patchwork," said Clare disgustedly to Alwynne, at the end of the
third week, "pure patchwork. She does everything I tell her--and the
result is dire. What it will be like on the night, heaven knows! And
there's nobody else. Yet she _can_ act. That first performance was quite
excellent."
"And she tries."
"She slaves! She would be less irritating if she didn't. You know,
Alwynne, I let myself go yesterday. I told her how impossible she was.
And all she did was to look at me like a mournful monkey!"
"Inarticulate. Exactly."
Clare lifted her eyebrows. Alwynne looked at her quaintly.
"You know perfectly well what's wrong. Why on earth don't you leave her
alone?"
"Uncoached?"
"That as well, of course. You said yourself she was excellent at first.
Why don't you leave her to herself? It's safe. She's not like the
others. She's a nectarine, not a potato. Give her a free hand till the
dress-rehearsal. It won't be your reading--I prefer yours, too; at least
I think I do----"
"I'm glad you say 'think.' But think again. There's no question of which
you ought to prefer. But I, my good child, must consider my public! It
wants to enjoy itself! It wants to weep salt tears! Louise's reading
would cheat it of its emotions!"
"At least it will be a reading, not a repetition. I don't mean that,
though, when I say--leave her alone. Clare--you won't realise what you
mean to people!"
"I don't follow----" but Clare laughed a little.
"You do. You know you've made Louise crazy about you." Clare shrugged
impatiently.
"I dislike these enthusiasms."
"But you cause them. I think it is rather mean to shirk the
consequences."
"Really, Alwynne!" But Clare was still smiling.
"You do. You begin by being heavenly to people--and then you tantalise
them."
"Does it hurt, Alwynne? Are you going to run away?"
Alwynne smiled.
"Oh, you won't get rid of me so easily. I'm a limpet. Do you know, I
couldn't imagine existence without you now. I've never been so
gloriously happy in my life. You wouldn't ever get really tired of me,
would you?"
"I wonder."
"I know."
"I've warned you that I'm changeable. Instance your Louise."
"Oh, Clare, do be nicer to Louise."
"Oh, Alwynne, do mind your own business. I'm as nice as is good for her.
But I believe you're right about this acting. I'll wash my hands of her
till the dress-rehearsal, if you like. You can tell her I said so."
But Alwynne, whispering to Louise that perhaps the old way was better
after all, that Miss Hartill had said she didn't mind, achieved little.
"Oh, Miss Durand--don't let her think I'm hopeless. I shall get it right
in time. I'd rather stick to the way she showed me. Miss Durand--do you
think she's angry? Honestly, I will get it right. Miss Durand--I suppose
there's no news?"
The child's face was very drawn; her eyes seemed larger than ever; she
looked like a little old woman! Alwynne was concerned; she felt vaguely
responsible. She, too, wished that the news, good or bad, would come,
and put an end at least to the tension.
And one morning, all unexpectedly, the news did come.
The performances were but two days away. The decorous Big Hall was in
confusion. The school sat, picnic-fashion, for its prayers; and the head
mistress, entering between half-hung cloths, mounted a battlemented
rostrum to address it. She carried a sheaf of papers. Louise, sitting
with her class at the further end of the hall, outwardly decorous
enough, was in reality paying little attention. Her vague, unhappy
thoughts were concerned with the coming rehearsal; she could not
remember what Miss Hartill's last directions had been; she was sure she
should stumble. Sometimes the mere words seemed to evade her. Yet the
play was on her shoulders--Miss Durand had said so. She supposed Prince
Arthur was really fond of Hubert? Not pretending, because he was afraid?
But of course it was easy to love a person and yet be terrified of them.
She stole a look at Clare, prominent in the grave group of mistresses.
They were all very intent. It dawned on her that the head mistress had
been speaking for several minutes.
Suddenly there was an outburst of clapping. The spectacled girl at the
end of the row grew pink and stared at her hands.
"What is it?" breathed Louise. "Oh, what is it? What is it?"
A neighbour caught the murmur and looked down at her curiously.
"Are you asleep? It's the lists. Your exam. You'll be second, I expect."
But Marion was second.
The clapping crackled up anew.
So the news was come!
It was cruel to let it spring upon you thus.... You would have asked so
little ... ten minutes ... a bare ... in which to brace yourself....
Surprise was horrible ... it caught you with your soul half-naked ... it
shocked like sudden noise....
There came a fresh outburst.
It was wicked to make such sounds ... like all the policeman's-rattles
in the world....
The reading proceeded; it calmed her; it barely stirred the beautiful
silence. But presently the neat voice altered. Old Edith Marsham was a
kindly soul. She had not quite forgotten her own schooldays. She
realised, perfunctorily, as the successful do, the blankness of defeat.
Louise heard her name pronounced, a trifle hurriedly. Louise
Denny--failed.
She made no sign. She sat erect, listening to the conclusion of that
matter, clapped in due course, stood, kneeled, rose again, as applause,
hymns and prayers buzzed about her, filed with her class from the hall
and added her shy word to the clamour of congratulation in the long
corridors. Inwardly, she was stunned by the evil that was upon her.
The irregular morning classes (the imminent entertainment had
disorganised the entire system of work) gave her time to rouse, to
review her position.
She turned helplessly within herself, wondering how she should begin to
think--and where. She wondered idly if this was how soldiers felt, when
a shell had blown them to pieces? She wondered how they collected
themselves afterwards? Where did they begin? Did an arm pick up the legs
and head, or how?
The picture thus conjured up struck her as excessively funny. She began
to giggle. The mistress's astonished voice roused her to the necessity
for self-control. She picked up her pen. The thoughts flowed more
clearly--yes, like ink in a pen.
So it had come.
All along she had known that she must have failed: known it from the day
of the examination itself. The burden of that knowledge had been upon
her for weeks like a secret guilt. Daily she had gone to prayers in cold
fear, thinking: "Now--now--now--they will read it out." Daily she had
studied Clare's face, to each change of expression, each abstraction or
transient sternness, her heart beating out its one thought: "She had
heard! she knows!" And yet behind her academic certainty of failure had
lain a little illogical hope. There was just a chance--an examiner more
kind than just ... a spilled ink-bottle ... an opportune fire. The child
in her could still pray for miracles, for help from fairyland, and half
believe it on the way.
And now the daily terrors, the daily reliefs, were alike over. Louise,
who had learned, as she thought, to do without hope these many weeks,
realised pitifully her self-deception. This hopelessness, this dead
weight of certainty, was a new burden--a Sisyphus rock which would never
roll for her. She was at the end.
Her mind, for all its forced and hot-house development, had, in matters
of raw fact, the narrow outlook of the schoolgirl, superimposed upon
the passions, the more intense for their utter innocence, of the child.
Her sense of proportion, that latest developed and most infallible sign
of maturity, was embryonic. The examination, so intrinsically
unimportant, appeared to her a Waterloo. She could not see beyond it.
Clare, inexplicably altering, daily sterner and more indifferent, save
for stray gleams of whimsical kindness, that stung and maddened the
child by their sweetness and rarity, would, Louise considered, be
effectually alienated. But Louise could not conceive life possible
without Clare. The future was a night of black misery, without a hint of
dawn.