Archery Day was a dismal one for Janet. She had to give up her place to
Gladys, for her arm was so swollen that she could not even string her
bow.
The old wing won, however, and it was Sally who had her name engraved on
the cup as the winner of the highest score.
It was an exciting day, but the most thrilling thing happened in the
evening. All preparations had been made for the play to be given on the
night before Commencement. The Dramatic Club had decided on _Romeo and
Juliet_. Daphne was to play Juliet, and Poppy Romeo.
Phyllis had a small part as one of Romeo's friends. Rehearsals had been
going on for the past month, and the cast felt that they were word
perfect in their parts at least.
Then the night before the performance Poppy fell down stairs. She cut
her face and bruised her shoulders and was carried unconscious to the
infirmary.
The Twins and Sally and Daphne heard the news in horrified silence.
"Who will play Romeo?" Daphne demanded.
The question was settled for them by Helen Jenkins. She knocked on the
door and strode in in her usual business-like way.
She saw by their faces that they knew the news, so she went straight to
the point.
"It's the worst possible thing that could have happened," she said
decidedly; and then without a word of warning, added, "Phyllis, _you_
will have to play Romeo."
"I play Romeo--"
"Phyl!"
"How wonderful!"
"But it's tomorrow," were some of the exclamations that greeted Helen's
news.
"Well, can you, or can't you?" Helen demanded. "I must hurry back to the
Infirmary, and put Poppy's mind at rest. She is making herself sicker by
worrying."
"Of course I'll do it," Phyllis answered promptly though her knees
trembled beneath her.
"Good girl!"
"Tell Poppy that I will do my best, and now everybody please get out,
I've got to study lines."
"Don't worry about lines," Janet said quietly.
"But why not?"
"Because I know the whole play backwards and frontwards, and I will sit
in the wings and follow you with every letter," Janet promised.
Phyllis's face relaxed. "Then that's all right," she said. "I'll brush
up on them, for I know them myself, of course, only I'm not sure of the
cues."
"I'll give you those."
Sally and Daphne paused at the door.
"Call me when you want to go over it with me," Daphne said. "And oh,
Phyl! I didn't like to say it before Helen, but I am so thrilled that I
don't know what to do."
"Taffy, you're a darling," Phyllis replied. "I'll probably spoil all
your nice scenes, too."
"Oh, no you won't," Sally returned decidedly.
"How do you know?" Phyllis asked laughing.
"Aunt Jane's Poll-parrot told me," Sally replied as the door closed on
them.
It was a busy twenty-four hours that followed. Janet stayed with Phyllis
every minute and gave her of her own courage.
The dress rehearsal was a decided failure, but the old girls were not at
all alarmed.
"I'm hopeless," Phyllis protested.
"You are not," Janet denied hotly.
"How do you feel, honey?" Poppy inquired. She was downstairs, but a sad
sight indeed, with her face covered with little pieces of gauze slapped
on with bits of adhesive plaster.
"Terrified, Poppy," Phyllis admitted.
"That's just right. I wouldn't have you sure of yourself for a second,"
Poppy comforted.
"Oh, dear, I must go and study some more," Phyllis sighed.
"You are to do nothing of the kind. You are to go out and take a walk,
and then come in and have a nice nap."
Phyllis laughed at the idea, but Poppy, with the aid of Sally and Janet
won her point, and with Daphne, nearly as frightened as Phyllis, they
went for a long walk.
When they got back they were glad enough for a little nap.
At last the evening came, and with it all the attendant excitement of a
performance. The old girls were as calm as they could be. They were used
to it, but poor Daphne and Phyllis!
They felt the difference in their ages and class, and were conscious of
a tiny feeling of resentment, not in the girls of the Dramatic Club, but
in some of the Juniors who had not been elected.
The curtain rose on time, at exactly eight o'clock. The setting was
charming and Phyllis, sure of Janet's support, accredited herself well.
The ballroom was filled with strange faces, for there were lots of
guests, and after the first terrified glance at them, Phyllis kept her
eyes on the stage.
By the time the balcony scene came, she was almost calm, and her voice
floated clear and mellow as she began--
"He jests at scars who never felt a wound--"
Daphne was a beautiful Juliet, with her soft hair bound down by a fillet
of pearls. When she leaned from her balcony to ask--
"What man art thou, who thus bescreened in night so stumbleth on
my council?"
The guests caught their breaths from sheer wonder.
Phyllis, perhaps under the witchery of Daphne's smile, forgot her
self-consciousness, and threw herself into the part with the result that
she wooed her Juliet with all the ardor of old Verona.
It was a triumph for the Dramatic Club, but for Daphne and Phyllis in
particular. They went to their rooms that night with their pretty heads
buzzing with all the flattery they had received. But, like the sensible
children that they were, they soon dismissed it as unimportant.
"Aren't you the happiest person in the whole world?" Janet demanded.
"You ought to be."
Phyllis shook her head. "No, I can't be perfectly happy, for every once
in a while I remember that this is our last night, and then I could
weep."
"I know, Taffy said the same thing," Janet agreed. "But, Phyl, think of
next year. We'll be old girls then."
Phyllis gave a happy little sigh and snuggled into her pillow.
"Phyl," Janet whispered after a minute, "I--I'm awfully proud of you."
Phyllis leaned over and kissed her.
"There!" she said, "that's the only compliment I have wanted all
evening, and I didn't think I was going to get it."
They fell asleep almost simultaneously, and the spirit of Hilltop
watched their slumbers, equally proud of them both.