"THE BEST LAID SCHEMES."
Judy did have her failings, the faults of an only child spoiled by
indulgent parents. But they were only on the surface, impulsive flashes
of irritability that never failed to be followed by deep, poignant
regret when the tempest had passed.
The next morning Molly was wakened by the fragrance of violets, and,
opening her eyes, she looked straight into the heart of a big bunch of
those flowers lying on her chest.
"Goodness, I feel like a corpse," she exclaimed.
Scrawled on a card pinned to the purple tissue ribbon around the stems
of the violets was the following inscription:
"For dearest Molly from her devoted and loving Judy."
"The poor child must have got up early this morning and gone down to the
village for them," she said to Nance. "And she does hate getting up
early, too."
Thus the coldness between the two girls came to a temporary end. Molly
did not go to the Beta Phi House to dinner on Sunday. Millicent sent
word that she was ill with a headache and would like to postpone the
visit. Some of the Shakespeareans came to the apartment of the three
girls to call one evening, but they were Judy's friends, invited by her
to drop in and have fudge, and Molly and Nance kept quiet and remained
in the background. If Judy was working to get into the Shakespeareans,
she should have the field to herself. The three visitors, seniors all of
them, left early, but in some mysterious way the news of their call
spread through the Quadrangle.
"Which of you is boning for the 'Shakespeareans'?" Minerva Higgins
demanded of Nance next day.
This irrepressible young person had already acquired a smattering of
college slang and college gossip. But still she had not learned the
difference between a freshman and a junior.
Nance drew herself up haughtily.
"Miss Higgins," she said, "there are some things at Wellington that are
never discussed."
"_Excuse me_," said Minerva, making an elaborate bow.
But Nance did not even notice the bow. She had gone on her way like an
injured dignitary.
The air was certainly full of rumors, however. Everybody, even the
faculty, wondered upon whose shoulders the Shakespeareans' highly
coveted honors would fall. The new members of this distinguished body
were always chosen after the junior play, preparations for which were
now under way. There had been first a stormy meeting of the class. It
was quite natural for President Wakefield to want all her particular
friends to form the committee to choose a play and select the actors,
and it was equally human of the Caroline Brinton forces to resent the
old clique rule. But Margaret was a mighty leader and would brook no
interference. So the Queen's girls were the ruling spirits of the
entertainment. Judy was chairman of the committee, and was to have the
principal part in the play, it being tacitly understood that she wanted
to show the Shakespeareans what she could do.
It was like the scholarly group to give a wide berth to the modern
comedies and melodramas usually selected by juniors for this
performance, and to settle on "Twelfth Night."
"We can never do it," Caroline Brinton had announced in great vexation.
"We haven't time and we have no coach."
But she had been calmly overruled and "Twelfth Night" it was to be, with
daily rehearsals except on Saturdays, when there were two.
Molly was cast for the part of Maria, the maid. And she was glad,
chiefly because the costume was easy. Judy was to play Viola, Edith
Williams, Malvolio, and the other parts were variously distributed,
Margaret being Sir Toby Belch.
When a college girl reaches her junior year her mind is well trained to
concentrate and memorize. Two years before, perhaps only Edith Williams,
whose memory was abnormal, would have trusted herself to memorize a
Shakespearean part. But the girls were amazed now at their own powers.
Miss Pryor, teacher of elocution, was present at many of the rehearsals,
criticizing and suggesting, and hers was the only outside assistance the
juniors had in their ambitious production.
It was probably through her that the accounts of their ability were
noised abroad, and on the night of the play there was a great rush for
seats. The president herself was there and many of the faculty.
Professor Green had a front balcony seat looking straight down on the
stage.
"Goodness, but I'm scared!" exclaimed Molly, peeping through the hole in
the curtain at the large assembly.
"Heaven help us all," groaned Nance, dressed as an attendant of the
Duke.
"Don't talk like that," Judy admonished them. "We must make it go off
all right. Molly, don't you forget and be too solemn. Your part calls
for much merriment, as the notes in the book said."
"Don't you be so dictatorial," said Nance, under her breath, hoping
instantly that Judy, in a high state of nerves and excitement, had not
heard her.
When the seniors began thumping on the floor with their heels and the
sophomores commenced clapping, Molly's mind became a vacuum. Not even
the first line of her part could she recall.
At last the curtain went up and the play began. She had no idea how Judy
had conducted herself. A girl near her said:
"She certainly had an awful case of stage fright, but she'll be all
right in the next act."
The words had no meaning to Molly, and she sat like a frozen image in
the wings until Nance touched her on the shoulder and whispered:
"Hurry up."
Then she stepped into the glare of the footlights. Her blood ceased
entirely to circulate. Her hands became numb. Icy fingers seemed to
clutch her throat, and when she opened her mouth to speak, no voice
came. She remembered making a fervent, speechless prayer.
In an instant her blood began to flow normally. She felt a wave of
crimson surge into her cheeks, and she heard her own voice speaking to
Margaret, stuffed out with sofa cushions to resemble Sir Toby Belch.
When the scene was over there was a great clapping of hands. It sounded
to Molly like a sudden rainstorm in summer. And, like a summer shower,
it was refreshing to the young actors in the great comedy.
"Good work, Molly," Margaret whispered. "I think we carried that off
pretty well. If only Judy doesn't get scared again the thing will go all
right."
"Did Judy have stage fright?" demanded Molly, in surprise.
"You mean to say you didn't know? She almost ruined the scene."
"Poor old Judy," thought Molly, "and just when she wanted to do her
best, too."
Judy did improve considerably as the play progressed, but even a
friendly audience has an unrelenting way of retaining first impressions;
or perhaps it was that poor Judy, sensitive and high strung, imagined
the audience was cold to her and so allowed her spirit to be quenched.
There were no cries for "Viola" from the people in front, and there were
many for Malvolio, Sir Toby and Maria.
Again and again these three actors came forth and bowed their
acknowledgment. During the intermission several of the freshmen ushers
carried down bouquets of flowers. Jessie received two from admirers who
appeared to keep a running account at the florist's in the village. A
splendid basket of red roses and a bunch of violets were handed over the
footlights for Molly, and when she was summoned from the wings to appear
and receive these floral offerings she flushed crimson and remarked to
the usher:
"There must be some mistake. They couldn't be for me."
A ripple of laughter went over the entire house. There was another burst
of applause which again brought Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky into
prominence through no fault of her own.
The card on the magnificent basket of roses made known to her the fact
that Miss Millicent Porter had thus honored her. The card on the violets
merely said: "From a crusty old critic who believes in your success."
"I thought Millicent Porter had a big crush on you," observed Margaret
later in the green room. "There's no doubt about it now after this noble
tribute."
"Nonsense," said Molly. "It's because she has so much money and likes to
spend it."
"On herself, yes, buying clothes and big lumps of silver to play with;
but not on you, Molly, dear, unless she had been greatly taken with your
charms."
Molly had seen a few college crushes and considered them absurd, a kind
of idol worship by a young girl for an older one; but because she had
been so closely with her own small circle, she had escaped a crush so
far.
"I'll never believe it," she said. "I'm much too humble a person to be
admired by such a grand young lady. She sent the roses because she had
to recall her invitation to dinner."
"Only time will prove it, Miss Molly," answered Margaret.
The play ended with a grand storm of applause and college yells. Not in
their wildest dreams had the juniors hoped for such success.
"It's difficult to tell who was the best, they were all so excellent,"
the president was reported to have said.
Finally, to satisfy the persistent multitude, each actor marched slowly
in front of the curtain, and each was received with more or less
enthusiasm.
"Rah-rah-rah; rah-rah-rah; Wellington--Wellington--Margaret Wakefield,"
they yelled; or "What's the matter with Molly Brown? She's all right.
Molly--Molly--Molly Brown."
In the intoxicating excitement of this fifteen minutes nobody realized
that Judy had withdrawn from the group of actors and hidden herself away
somewhere behind the scenery. There was some speculation in the audience
as to why Viola had not filed across the stage with the others, but
since Judy's really devoted friends were all behind the scenes, there
was no one to bring her out unless she chose to show herself with the
others.
"Wasn't it simply grand?" cried Jessie, the last to taste the sweets of
popularity. The hall was still ringing with:
"Jessie--Jessie--she's all right!" when she bowed herself behind the
curtain and joined her classmates in the green room. Then there came
cries of:
"Speech! Speech! Wakefield! Wakefield!"
Margaret, as composed as a May morning, stepped to the front of the
platform and gave one of her most appropriate addresses to the joy of
the audience and the intense amusement of the faculty.
"Think of that child, only eighteen, and making such a speech! They are
certainly a remarkable group of girls. So much individuality among
them," said Miss Walker to Miss Pomeroy, at her side.
"And rare charm in some of the individuals," added Miss Pomeroy. "The
little Brown girl, for instance, who, by the way, is as tall as I am,
but so thin that she seems small, has magnetism that will carry her
through many a difficulty in life. They tell me she is almost adored by
her friends."
In the meantime the juniors, entirely unconscious of these compliments
from high places, and perhaps it was quite as well they were, had just
missed Judy from their midst.
"Didn't she go before the curtain with the rest of us?" some one asked.
"But how strange, when she had the leading part."
"I thought I heard them give her the yell."
"Judy, Judy," called Molly.
"Here I am," answered a muffled voice from behind the scenery.
Presently Judy appeared, showing a face so white and tragic that her
friends were shocked. With a tactful instinct most of the girls
hurriedly gathered their things together and disappeared, leaving only
the intimates in the green room.
"Why, Judy, dearest, why did you hide yourself, and you the leading lady
of the company?" exclaimed Molly reproachfully, when all outsiders had
departed.
"Don't flatter me, Molly," Judy answered, in a hard, strained voice.
"But you were," said Molly, "and you acted beautifully."
"I ruined the play," said Judy angrily. "I ruined the entire business,
and you made me do it."
"Oh, Judy," cried Molly, "you are talking wildly. What do you mean?"
"You did. You upset me completely when you said: 'don't be so
dictatorial.' I never heard you make a speech like that before. And
just as I was about to go on, too. It was cruel. It was unkind. If it
had come from any one else but you----"
"Here--here," broke in Margaret. "Really, Judy, you're losing your
temper."
"She never said it, anyhow," cried Nance. "I said it myself."
"She did say it, Nance. You're just trying to screen her," replied Judy,
who had worked herself into a nervous rage.
"Is this going to be a free fight?" asked Edith, who always enjoyed
battles.
Molly was gathering up her things.
"Not as far as I am concerned," she answered, in a trembling voice.
As she went out she looked sorrowfully back at Judy, but not another
word did she say.
"Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Judy Kean?" cried Nance. "You're
jealous and that's the whole of it," and she flung herself out of the
door after Molly. The others quickly followed. Certainly sympathy was
against Judy.
And what of poor Judy left all alone in the gymnasium?
Torn with anger, remorse, jealousy and disappointment, she threw herself
face downward on the empty stage.
Presently the janitor came in and switched off the lights.