As Patty at the moment had her nose buried in a box of face-powder she thought it unnecessary to answer.
"It brings back my youth," she pursued. "The best times of my life have been mixed up with powder and rouge—Washington's Birthday nights, and minstrel shows, and masquerades, and plays at boarding-school, and even Mother Goose tableaux2 when I was a—"
Patty's reminiscences were interrupted by Georgie, who was anxiously pacing up and down the wings. "It's queer some of the cast don't come. I told them to be here early, so we could get them all made up and not have a rush at the end."
"Oh, there's time enough," said Patty, comfortably. "It isn't seven yet, and if they're going to dress in their rooms it won't take any time over here just to make them up and put on their wigs4. It's a comparatively small cast, you see. Now, on the night of the Trig. ceremonies, when we had to make up three whole ballets and only had one box of make-up, we were rushed. I thought I'd never live to see the curtain go down. Do you remember the suit of chain-mail we made for Bonnie Connaught out of wire dish-cloths? It took sixty-three, and the ten-cent store was terribly dubious5 about renting them to us; and then, after working every spare second for three days over the thing, we found, the last minute, that we hadn't left a big enough hole for her to get into, and—"
"Oh, do keep still, Patty," said Georgie, nervously6; "I can't remember what I have to do when you talk all the time."
A manager on the eve of producing a new play, with his reputation at stake, may be excused for being a trifle irritable7. Patty merely shrugged8 her shoulders and descended9 through the stage-door to the half-lighted hall, where she found Cathy Fair strolling up and down the center aisle10 in an apparently11 aimless manner.
"Hello, Cathy," said Patty; "what are you doing over here?"
"I'm head usher12, and I wanted to see if those foolish sophomores14 had mixed up the numbers again."
"It strikes me they're a trifle close together," said Patty, sitting down and squeezing in her knees.
"Yes, I know; but you can't get eight hundred people into this hall any other way. When we once get them packed they'll have to sit still, that's all. What are you doing over here yourself?" she continued. "I didn't know you were on the committee. Or are you just helping15 Georgie?"
"I'm in the cast," said Patty.
"Oh, are you? I saw the program to-day, but I'd forgotten it. I've often wondered why you haven't been in any of the class plays."
"Fortune and the faculty16 are against it," sighed Patty. "You see, they didn't discover my histrionic ability before examinations freshman17 year, and after examinations, when I was asked to be in the play, the faculty thought I could spend the time to better advantage studying Greek. At the time of the sophomore13 play I was on something else and couldn't serve, and this year I had just been deprived of my privileges for coming back late after Christmas."
"But I thought you said you were in it?"
"What sort of a part is it?"
"I'm a crash."
"A crash?"
"Yes, 'a crash without.' Lord Bromley says, 'Cynthia, I will brave all for your sake. I will follow you to the ends of the earth.' At this point a crash is heard without. I," said Patty, proudly, "am the crash. I sit behind a moonlit balcony in a space about two feet square, and drop a lamp-chimney into a box. It may not sound like a very important part, but it is the pivot19 upon which the whole plot turns."
"I hope you won't be taken with stage-fright," laughed Cathy.
"I'll try not," said Patty. "There comes the butler and Lord Bromley and Cynthia. I've got to go and make them up."
"Why are you making people up, if you are not on the committee?"
"Oh, once, during a period of mental weakness, I took china-painting lessons, and I'm supposed to know how. Good-by."
"Good-by. If you get any flowers I'll send them in by an usher."
"Do," said Patty. "I'm sure to get a lot."
Behind the scenes all was joyful20 confusion. Georgie, in a short skirt, with her shirt-waist sleeves rolled up and a note-book in her hand, was standing21 in the middle of the stage directing the scene-shifters and distracted committee. Patty, in the "green-room," was presiding over the cast, with a hare's foot in one hand and the other daubed with red and blue grease-paints.
"Oh, Patty," remonstrated22 Cynthia, with a horrified23 glance in the mirror, "I look more like a soubrette than a heroine."
"That's the way you ought to look," returned Patty. "Here, hold still till I put another dab24 on your chin."
Cynthia appealed to the faithful Lord Bromley, who was sitting in the background, politely letting the ladies go first. "Look, Bonnie, don't you think I'm too red? I know it'll all come off when you kiss me."
"If it comes off as easily as that, you'll be more fortunate than most of the people I make up"; and Patty smiled knowingly as she remembered how Priscilla had soaked half the night on the occasion of a previous play, and then had appeared at breakfast the next morning with lowering eyebrows25 and a hectic26 flush on each cheek. "You must remember that foot-lights take a lot of color," she explained condescendingly. "You'd look ghastly if I let you go the way you wanted to at first. Next!
"No," said Patty, as the butler presented himself; "you don't come till the second act. I'll take the Irate27 Parent first." The Irate Parent was dragged from a corner where he had been anxiously mumbling28 over his lines. "What's the matter?" asked Patty, as she began daubing in wrinkles with a liberal hand; "are you afraid?"
"N-no," said the Parent; "I'm not afraid, only I'm afraid that I will be afraid."
"You'd just better change your mind, then," said Patty, sternly. "We aren't going to allow any stage-fright to-night."
"Patty, you can manage Georgie Merriles; make her let me go on without any wig3," cried Cynthia, returning and holding up to view a mass of yellow curls of a shade that was never produced in the course of nature.
Patty looked at the wig critically. "It is, perhaps, a trifle golden for the part."
"Golden!" said Cynthia. "It's positively29 orange. Wait till you see how it lights up. He calls me his dark-eyed beauty: and I'm sure no one with dark eyes, or any other kind of eyes, would have hair like that. My own looks a great deal better."
"Why don't you wear your own, then? Wrinkle up your forehead, Parent, and let me see which way they run."
"Georgie paid two dollars for renting it, and she's bound to get the money's worth of wear out of it, even if she makes me look like a fright and spoils the play."
"Nonsense," said Patty, pushing away the Parent and giving her undivided attention to the question. "Your own hair does look better. Just mislay the wig and keep out of Georgie's way till the curtain goes up. The audience are beginning to come," she announced to the room in general, "and you've got to keep still back there. You're making an awful racket, and they can hear you all over the house. Here, what are you making such a noise for?" she demanded of Lord Bromley, who came clumping30 up with footfalls which reverberated31 through the flies.
"I can't help it," he said crossly. "Look at these boots. They're so big that I can step out of them without unlacing them."
"It's not my fault. I haven't anything to do with the costumes."
"I know it; but what can I do?"
"Never mind," said Patty, soothingly32; "they don't look so awfully33 bad. You'll have to try and walk without raising your feet."
She went out on the stage, where Georgie was giving her last directions to the scene-shifters. "The minute the curtain goes down on the first act change this forest to the drawing-room scene, and don't make any noise hammering. If you have to hammer, do it while the orchestra's playing. How does it look?" she asked anxiously, turning to Patty.
"Beautiful," said Patty. "I'd scarcely recognize it."
The "forest scene" had served in every outdoor capacity for the last four years, and it was usually hailed with a groan35 on the part of the audience.
"I was just coming in to see if the cast were ready," said Georgie.
"They're all made up, and are sitting in the green-room getting stage-fright. What shall I do now?"
"Let me see," said Georgie, consulting her book. "One of the committee is to prompt, one is to stay with the men and see that they manage the curtain and the lights in the right places, one is to give the cues, and two are to help change costumes. Cynthia has to change from a riding-habit to a ball-gown in four minutes. I think you'd better help her, too."
"Anything you please," said Patty, obligingly. "I'll stand on a stool with the ball-gown in the air ready to drop it over her head the moment she appears, like a harness on a fire-horse. Is everything out here done? What time is it?"
"Yes; everything's done, and it's five minutes of eight. We can begin as soon as the audience is ready."
They peered through the folds of the heavy velvet36 curtain at the sea of faces in front. Eight hundred girls in light evening-gowns were talking and laughing and singing. Snatches of song would start up in one corner and sweep gaily37 over the house, and sometimes two would meet and clash in the center, to the horror of those who preferred harmony to volume.
"Here come the old girls!" said Patty, as a procession of some fifty filed into reserved seats near the front. "There are loads of last year's class back. What are the juniors doing? Look; I believe they are going to serenade them."
The juniors rose in a body, and, turning to their departed sister class, sang a song notable for its sentiment rather than its meter.
"I do hope it will be a success," sighed Georgie. "If it doesn't come up to last year's senior play I shall die."
"Oh, it will," said Patty, reassuringly38. "Anything would be better than that."
"Now the glee club's going to sing two songs," said Georgie. "Thank heaven, they're new!" she added fervently39. "And the orchestra plays an overture40, and then the curtain goes up. Run and tell them to come out here, ready for the first act."
Lord Bromley was standing in the wings disgustedly viewing the banquet-table. "See here, Patty," he called as she hurried past. "Look at this stuff Georgie Merriles has palmed off on us for wine. You can't expect me to drink any such dope as that."
Patty paused for an instant. "What's the matter with it?" she inquired, pouring out some in a glass and holding it up to the light.
"Matter? It's made of currant jelly and water, with cold tea mixed in."
"I made it myself," said Patty, with some dignity. "It's a beautiful color."
"I'm sure there's nothing in currant jelly or tea to hurt you. You can be thankful it isn't poisonous." And Patty hurried on.
The glee club sang the two new songs, punctuated42 with the appreciative43 applause of a long-suffering audience, and the orchestra commenced the overture.
"Everybody clear the stage," said Georgie, in a low tone, "and you keep your eyes on the book," she added sternly to the prompter; "you lost your place twice at the dress rehearsal44."
The overture died down; a bell tinkled45, and the curtain parted in the middle, discovering Cynthia sitting on a garden-seat in the castle park (originally the Forest of Arden).
As the curtain fell at the end of the act, and the applause gave way to an excited buzz in the audience, Patty hugged Georgie gleefully. "It's fifty times better than last year!"
"Heaven send Theo Granby is out there!" piously46 ejaculated Georgie. (Theo Granby had been the chairman of last year's senior play.)
The curtain had risen on the fourth act, and Patty squeezed herself into the somewhat close quarters behind the balcony. There was fortunately—or rather unfortunately—a window in the rear of the building at this point, and Patty opened it and perched herself at one end of the sill, with the lamp-chimney ready for use at the other end. The crash was not due for some time, and Patty, having lately elected astronomy, whiled away the interval47 by examining the stars.
On the stage matters were approaching a climax48. Lord Bromley was making an excellent lover, as was proved by the fact that the audience was taking him seriously instead of laughing through the love scenes as usual.
"Cynthia," he implored49, "say that you will be mine, and I will brave all for your sake. I will follow you to the ends of the earth." He gazed tenderly into her eyes, and waited for the crash. A silence as of the tomb prevailed, and he continued to gaze tenderly, while a grin rapidly spread over the audience.
"Hang Patty!" he murmured savagely50. "Might have known she'd do something like this.—What was that? Did you hear a noise?" he asked aloud.
"No," said Cynthia, truthfully; "I did not hear anything."
"Pretend you did," he whispered, and they continued to improvise51. After some five minutes of hopeless floundering, the prompter got them back on the track again, and the act proceeded, with the audience happily unaware52 that anything was missing.
Ten minutes later Lord Bromley was declaiming: "Cynthia, let us flee this place. Its dark rooms haunt me; its silence oppresses me—" And the crash came.
For the first moment the audience was too startled to notice that the actors were also taken by surprise. Then Lord Bromley, who was getting used to emergencies, pulled himself together and ejaculated, "Hark! What was that sound?"
"I think it was a crash," said Cynthia.
He grasped her hand and ran back toward the balcony. "Give us our lines," he said to the prompter, as he went past.
The prompter had dropped the book, and couldn't find the place.
"Make them up," came in a piercing whisper from behind the balcony.
A silence ensued while the two dashed back and forth53, looking excitedly up and down the stage. Then the despairing Lord Bromley stretched out his arms in a gesture of supplication54. "Cynthia," he burst out in tones of realistic longing55, "I cannot bear this horrible suspense56. Let us flee." And they fled, fully34 three pages too early, forgetting to leave the letter which should have apprised57 the Irate Parent of the circumstance.
Georgie was tramping up and down the wings, wringing58 her hands and lamenting59 the day that ever Patty had been born.
"Hurry up that Parent before they stop clapping," said Lord Bromley, "and they'll never know the difference."
The poor old man, with his wig over one ear, was unceremoniously hustled60 on to the stage, where he raved61 up and down and swore never to forgive his ungrateful daughter in so realistic a manner that the audience forgot to wonder how he found it out. In due time the runaways62 returned from the notary's, overcame the old man's harshness, received the parental63 blessing64, and the curtain fell on a scene of domestic felicity that delighted the freshmen65 in the gallery.
Patty crawled out from under the balcony and fell on her knees at Georgie's feet.
Lord Bromley raised her up. "Never mind, Patty. The audience doesn't know the difference; and, anyway, it was all for the best. My mustache wouldn't have stayed on more than two minutes longer."
They could hear some one shouting in the front, "What's the matter with Georgie Merriles?" and a hundred voices replied, "She's all right!"
"Who's all right?"
"G-e-o-r-g-i-e M-e-r-r-i-l-e-s."
"What's the matter with the cast?"
"They're all right!"
The stage-door burst open and a crowd of congratulatory friends burst in and gathered around the disheveled actors and committee. "It's the best senior play since we've been in college." "The freshmen are simply crazy over it." "Lord Bromley, your room will be full of flowers for a month." "Patty," called the head usher, over the heads of the others, "let me congratulate you. I was in the very back of the room, and never heard a thing but your crash. It sounded fine!"
"Patty," demanded Georgie, "what in the world were you doing?"
"I was counting the stars," said the contrite66 Patty, "and then I remembered too late, and I turned around suddenly, and it fell off. I am terribly sorry."
"Never mind," laughed Georgie; "since it turned out well, I'll forgive you. All the cast and committee," she said, raising her voice, "come up to my room for food. I'm sorry I can't invite you all," she added to the girls crowded in the doorway67, "but I live in a single."
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1
gunpowder
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| n.火药 | |
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tableaux
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| n.舞台造型，（由活人扮演的）静态画面、场面；人构成的画面或场景( tableau的名词复数 )；舞台造型；戏剧性的场面；绚丽的场景 | |
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wig
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| n.假发 | |
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wigs
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| n.假发，法官帽( wig的名词复数 ) | |
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dubious
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| adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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usher
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| n.带位员，招待员；vt.引导，护送；vi.做招待，担任引座员 | |
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13
sophomore
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| n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的 | |
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sophomores
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| n.（中等、专科学校或大学的）二年级学生( sophomore的名词复数 ) | |
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15
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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freshman
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| n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女) | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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pivot
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| v.在枢轴上转动；装枢轴，枢轴；adj.枢轴的 | |
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joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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remonstrated
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| v.抗议( remonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )；告诫 | |
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horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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dab
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| v.轻触，轻拍，轻涂；n.(颜料等的)轻涂 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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hectic
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| adj.肺病的；消耗热的；发热的；闹哄哄的 | |
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irate
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| adj.发怒的，生气 | |
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mumbling
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的现在分词 ) | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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clumping
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| v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的现在分词 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
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reverberated
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| 回响，回荡( reverberate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使反响，使回荡，使反射 | |
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soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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reassuringly
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| ad.安心，可靠 | |
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fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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overture
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| n.前奏曲、序曲，提议，提案，初步交涉 | |
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outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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42
punctuated
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| v.（在文字中）加标点符号，加标点( punctuate的过去式和过去分词 )；不时打断某事物 | |
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appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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rehearsal
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| n.排练，排演；练习 | |
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45
tinkled
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| （使）发出丁当声，（使）发铃铃声( tinkle的过去式和过去分词 )； 叮当响着发出，铃铃响着报出 | |
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piously
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| adv.虔诚地 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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48
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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49
implored
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| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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51
improvise
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| v.即兴创作；临时准备，临时凑成 | |
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52
unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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supplication
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| n.恳求，祈愿，哀求 | |
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55
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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56
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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57
apprised
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| v.告知，通知( apprise的过去式和过去分词 )；评价 | |
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wringing
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| 淋湿的，湿透的 | |
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59
lamenting
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| adj.悲伤的，悲哀的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的现在分词 ) | |
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60
hustled
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| 催促（hustle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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raved
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| v.胡言乱语( rave的过去式和过去分词 )；愤怒地说；咆哮；痴心地说 | |
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62
runaways
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| （轻而易举的）胜利( runaway的名词复数 ) | |
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63
parental
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| adj.父母的；父的；母的 | |
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64
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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65
freshmen
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| n.（中学或大学的）一年级学生( freshman的名词复数 ) | |
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66
contrite
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| adj.悔悟了的，后悔的，痛悔的 | |
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67
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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