"You know what Mrs. Case says," put in Bobby, in an undertone. "She says your feet, Lil, have been bound like a Chinese woman"s of the old regime."
"Oh, you!"
"Margit went barefoot and lived in the open for years," said Laura.
"She was "near to Nature"s heart,"" laughed Jess. "Of course, she never tried to squeeze a number six foot into narrow twos."
"Never mind the size of her feet," said Mr. Mann good-naturedly. "If she can take the part, she will be just the one for it I remember that Miss Carrington"s niece does have a queenly walk. And that is just what we need.
But do you think we can get her?"
"She has never joined our club," said Jess thoughtfully.
"I am not sure that she has ever been invited," Laura said. "But she is always busy----"
"Gee Gee pretty near works her to death," growled Bobby. "I shouldn"t wonder if Margit flew the coop some day."
"I am not sure, Miss Hargrew," said Mr. Mann, without a smile, "that I ought not to take you to task for your language. It really is inexcusable."
"Oh, dear me, Mr. Mann, don"t you begin!" begged the culprit "If I am academic in school in my speech, let me be relieved out of sessions, I pray."
"But about Margit Salgo?" queried Laura. "Do you suppose she will be able to help us? I know she will be willing to, if we ask her."
"Gee Gee will object, you bet," growled Bobby under her breath.
That was not to be known, however, without asking. Laura said she would speak to Margaret about it, while Mr. Mann intimated that he would mention to Miss Carrington, the elder, that her niece was almost necessary to the success of the play.
Margit Salgo was not so straightly kept by Miss Carrington as she was engaged from morning to night in her studies. Having been utterly neglected as far as mental development went for several years, the half-gypsy girl was much behind others of her age at Central High.
Miss Grace Gee Carrington was pushing her protege on as fast as possible.
She was not yet in the cla.s.ses of those, girls of her age whom she knew at Central High; but she was fast forging ahead and she took much pride in her own advancement.
Therefore she did not see Miss Carrington"s sternness as Bobby, for instance, saw it. She found her aunt kind and considerate, if very firm.
And the girl who had been half wild when Laura Belding first found her, as has been related in "The Girls of Central High on Track and Field," was settling into a very sedate and industrious young woman.
What girl, however, does not love to "dress up and act?" Margit Salgo was delighted when Laura explained their need to her.
"Just as sure as auntie will let me, I"ll act," declared the dark beauty, flushing brilliantly and her black eyes aflame with interest. "You are a dear, Laura Belding, to think of me," and she hugged Mother Wit heartily.
Two days pa.s.sed, and then came the first rehearsal. This, of course, could be little more than a reading of the parts before Mr. Mann, with the latter to advise them as to elocution and stage business. But Bobby declared she had been practicing walking like a boy and had succeeded in copying Short and Long almost exactly.
"Why me?" demanded Billy sharply, whose usual sweet temper seemed to have become dreadfully soured of late.
"Well, why not?" demanded Bobby. "Should I copy Pretty Sweet"s strut?"
"Aw--him!" snorted Billy Long, turning away in vexation.
"Now, tell me," said the quick-minded Bobby Hargrew to Laura and Jess, with whom she chanced to be walking at the moment, "why it is that Billy has taken such a violent dislike to poor Purt of late? Why, he doesn"t feel kindly enough toward him to send him another dead fish!"
They were going to the rehearsal, which was in the small hall of the school. Of course, there was a sight of bustle and talking. Every girl was greatly excited over her part. Some were "sure they couldn"t do it," while there were those who "could not possibly remember cues."
"And I know I shall laugh just at the wrong place," said Lily Pendleton. "I always do."
"If you do," growled Bobby, "I"ll do something to you that will make you feel far from laughing, I a.s.sure you."
"How savagely you talk!" sighed Nellie Agnew. "That boy"s part you are to fill is already affecting you, Clara."
""Sailor Bob" is going to be terrifically rough, I suppose," Jess said, laughing.
Mr. Mann called them to order, and the girls finally rustled into seats and prepared to go through "The Rose Garden" for the first time. Everybody knew her first speeches, and as Mr. Mann accentuated the cues and advised about the business the girls did very well during the first act.
But with the opening of the second act there was a halt. Here was where "the dark lady" should come in. Her first appearance marked a flourishing period by Jess, who strode about the stage as the hero of the piece.
"And Margit"s not here!" cried Dora Lockwood. "Shouldn"t she be, Mr. Mann?
Really, her entrance gives me my cue, not Adrian"s speech."
Adrian was Jess Morse. She nodded her head vigorously. "Of course, Margit ought to be here to rehea.r.s.e with us."
"I am afraid," said Mr. Mann, with pursed lips, "that we shall have to give up the idea of having Miss Carrington--the younger--for the part."
"Oh, oh, oh!" chorused some of the girls. "Can"t Margit play?"
"Isn"t that just like Gee Gee?" demanded Bobby furiously.
"She wanted to, I am sure," Laura said. "It is not Margit"s fault."
"Of course it isn"t," snapped Jess. "That old--"
Fortunately she got no farther. The door opened at that instant and Miss Grace Gee Carrington entered. She was a very tall woman with grayish hair, eyegla.s.ses, and a sallow complexion. Her dignity of carriage and stern manner were quite overpowering.
"Young ladies!" she said sharply, having come into the room and closed the door, "I have a word to say. I told Mr. Mann I would come here and explain why my niece cannot take part in any such foolish and inconsequential exhibition as this that you have determined on."
She glared around, and the girls" faces a.s.sumed various expressions of disturbance. Some, even, were frightened, for Miss Carrington had always reigned by power of fear.
"I would not allow Margaret to lower herself by appearing in such a play. I disapprove greatly of girls taking boys" parts. The object of the play itself is merely to amuse. There is nothing worth while or educational about it."
Again silence, and the girls only glanced fearfully at each other.
"I have a proposition to make to you," said the stern teacher. "It is not too late to change your plans. I have Mr. Sharp"s permission to make the suggestion. He will agree to your changing the play and will be--er--satisfied, I am sure, if you accept my advice and put on the play which I first suggested. This is an old Greek play with real value to it We gave it once in my own college days, and it truly made a sensation. I should be quite willing for Margaret to appear in that play, and I should, in fact, be willing to give Mr. Mann the benefit of my own experience in rehearsing the piece."
Mr. Mann actually looked frightened. The stern instructor overpowered him exactly as she did many of the girls.
CHAPTER XII
BUBBLE, BUBBLE