"As a matter of fact, it was written by Theocritus about the year 266 B.
C. It describes the visit paid by two Syracusan ladies residing in Alexandria to the festival of Adonis. Their manners and talk then must have been very similar to ours of to-day. Listen to the part where they are getting ready to start.
"_Gorgo._ It seems nearly time to go.
"_Praxinoe._ Idlers have always holidays. Eunoe, bring the water, and put it down in the middle of the room, lazy creature that you are!
Cats always like to sleep soft! Come, bustle, bring the water--quicker! I want water first, and how she carries it! Give it me all the same: don"t pour out so much, you extravagant thing!
Stupid girl! Why are you wetting my dress? There, stop, I have washed my hands, as heaven would have it! Where is the key of the big chest? Bring it here.
"_Gorgo._ Praxinoe, that full body becomes you wonderfully. Tell me, how much did the stuff cost you just off the loom?
"_Praxinoe._ Don"t speak of it, Gorgo! More than eight pounds in good silver money--and the work on it! I nearly slaved my soul out over it.
"_Gorgo._ Well, it is _most_ successful: all you could wish.
"_Praxinoe._ Thanks for the pretty speech. Eunoe, bring my shawl, and set my hat on my head, the fashionable way. No, Zopyrion, I don"t mean to take _you_! Boo! Bogies! There"s a horse that bites! Cry as much as you please, but I cannot have you lamed. Let us be moving.
Phrygia, take the child, and keep him amused, call in the dog, and shut the street door!"
"It"s exactly like anybody going out to-day!" commented Carmel, as Miss Adams came to a pause.
"Why does it seem so modern?" asked Dulcie.
"Because it was written during the zenith of Greece"s history, and one great civilization always resembles another. England of to-day is far more in touch with the times of ancient Egypt, Babylon, Greece and Rome, than with the Middle Ages. Read Chaucer, and you find his mental outlook is that of a child of seven. In the days of the Plantagenets grown men and women enjoyed stories of a crude simplicity that now only appeals to children. The human race is always progressing in great successive waves of civilization; after each wave breaks, a time of barbarism prevails, till man is again educated to a higher growth. We"re living at the top of a wave at present!"
"I remember," said Carmel, "when Mother and Daddy took me to Rome, we saw the busts of the Emperors, and of all sorts of clever people, who"d lived in about the first century, and we all said: "Oh, aren"t their faces just like people of to-day?" We amused ourselves with saying one was a lawyer, and another a doctor, and calling some of them after our friends. Then we went afterwards to an exhibition of sixteenth-century portraits; perhaps the artists hadn"t learnt to paint well, but at any rate the faces were utterly different from people of to-day. They seemed quite another type altogether--not so intelligent or so interesting. We were tremendously struck with the difference."
"It marks my point," said Miss Adams.
"What else do Gorgo and Praxinoe do?" asked Edith.
"They go into Alexandria for the festival, and find the streets so crowded that they are almost frightened to death, and have hard work not to lose Eunoe, the slave girl, whom they have taken with them; she nearly gets squeezed as they pa.s.s in at the door. They go into raptures over an exhibition of embroideries. "Lady Athene," says Praxinoe, "what spinning-women wrought them? What painters designed their drawings, so true they are?" I haven"t time to read it all to you now, but I must just give you the little bit where they quarrel with a stranger. It"s too absolutely priceless.
"_A Stranger._ You weariful women, do cease your endless cooing talk!
You bore one to death with your eternal broad vowels!
"_Gorgo._ Indeed! And where may this person come from? What is it to you if we _are_ chatterboxes? Give orders to your own servants, sir. Do you pretend to command ladies of Syracuse? If you must know, we are Corinthians by descent, like Bellerophon himself, and we speak Peloponnesian. Dorian women may lawfully speak Doric, I presume?"
"Oh, _do_ let me be Gorgo!" begged Dulcie. "I love her; she"s so smart and sarcastic. Isn"t it exactly like somebody talking during a concert, and a person in the row in front objecting, and a friend b.u.t.ting in with rude remarks? That"s what generally happens."
"Did people"s accent matter in Greek as much as it does in English?"
asked Prissie.
"Evidently. The Alexandrian gentleman--who sounds a decided fop--did not approve of a Doric p.r.o.nunciation. No doubt broad vowels were out of fashion. I believe I shall give his part to Edith. It"s a small one, but it has scope for a good deal of acting."
"And who is to be Praxinoe, please?"
"I think I must choose Carmel. She ought to act in an idyll by Theocritus, as he was a Sicilian like herself. Would he find Sicily much altered, Carmel, if he came back? Or is it the same after two thousand years?"
"There are still goatherds on the mountains, though we don"t see wood nymphs now!"
"No, the wood nymphs have all trotted over to England, and are going to give a performance in aid of the "Waifs and Strays!"" said Dulcie. "I hope Apollo will remember them, and send them a fine day, if he"s anything to do with the weather over here. Perhaps his sun chariot only runs on the Mediterranean route."
"Surely he"s got an aeroplane by now!" laughed Edith. "We"ll send him a wireless message to remind him of his duty. "Nymphs dancing Thursday week at 2.30 P. M. Kindly cable special supply of sunshine.""
"Now, girls, you"re getting silly!" said Miss Adams, shutting her book and rising. "If we want to make a success of our cla.s.sic afternoon, we"ve plenty of hard work before us. I"m going on with costumes at present, and anybody who cares to volunteer can fetch her thimble and a needle and cotton, and hem a chiton."
CHAPTER VIII
Wood Nymphs
It needed a tremendous amount of rehearsing and preparation before Miss Adams judged her cla.s.sic performance fit for public exhibition. The Greek garments, simple as they were, nevertheless required sewing, and there were certain pieces of scenery to be constructed. The other mistresses helped n.o.bly, though they were thankful to be spared the organization of the proceedings, and to leave the brunt of the burden to a specialist. Tickets for the entertainment had been sold in the neighborhood, and parents and friends of the girls who lived within motoring distance had promised to drive over.
"Cousin Clare is coming!" rejoiced Dulcie. "She has two friends staying at the Chase, and she"ll bring them with her. If Milner drives them, I shall ask Miss Walters if he may come and watch too. He"d be _so_ delighted to see it. He loves anything of that kind. His own little girl was May Queen at the village pageant two years ago, and he"s talked about it ever since."
"I wrote to Mr. Bowden," said Lilias, "and he"s taken two tickets, but he"s doubtful if he"ll find time to get off. He"s always so busy."
"Never mind if he sent the money for them!" consoled Edith. "Of course it"s nice to have big audiences, but it"s money we"re out for. We want to make a decent sum."
"Miss Walters says the tickets have sold quite well. Even if it"s a doubtful day, and we don"t have a very big audience, we shall clear something, at any rate."
"Oh, but I do hope people will come! It"s so disappointing to take all this trouble, and to act to rows of empty chairs. What"s going to happen, by the by, if it"s a wet day? Will it be put off?"
"We shall have to have it in the big schoolroom. It can"t be put off, because Miss Adams can only stay till Friday, and we couldn"t get through it without her."
"No, indeed! She"s the directing genius of it all!"
"Oh dear! It simply _must_ keep fine!"
Never was weather more carefully watched. All the old country saws and superst.i.tions were remembered and repeated. It became a matter of vital importance to notice whether the scarlet pimpernel was out, if the cattle were grazing with their heads up hill, and whether a heron flew across the sky. Prissie took a candle into the garden last thing before bed-time, to observe if the lawn showed earthworms; the finding of black slugs was considered to be rather fatal, and the hooting of owls a decidedly bad omen. The G.o.ddess of the English climate, however, is such a fickle deity that there is never the least dependence to be placed on weather prophecies. She always seems to prefer to give a surprise. On the day before the performance it rained; evening closed in with a stormy sky, and every probability of waking next morning to find a drizzle. Dulcie, putting her head out of the window last thing, reported driving clouds and a total absence of stars.
Yet, lo and behold! they woke to one of those rare ethereal dawns that come only now and then in a summer. The Blue bedroom faced east, and over the line of laurels in the garden they could watch pearl and opal flush into rosy pink before the sun shone out in an almost cloudless sky. By nine o"clock the wet gra.s.s of yesterday was beginning to dry up, and Miss Adams, with the help of Jones the gardener, was setting up her scenery, and making initial arrangements for the business of the afternoon.
She had contrived her open-air theater as far as possible on Greek lines. There was no stage, but the audience sat on chairs on the gra.s.s, and on cushions and rugs placed down a bank that commanded the lawn.
The performance was to begin at 3 o"clock, and soon after 2.30 visitors began to arrive. There was quite a long row of cars in the drive, bicycles were stacked against the veranda, and two ponies were put up in the stable. Cousin Clare and her friends came in excellent time, driven--much to Dulcie"s satisfaction--by Milner, who in company with the other chauffeurs received a cordial invitation from Miss Walters to witness the show.
"And wasn"t it nice of him?" said Dulcie to Carmel, "he insisted on giving a shilling to the funds. I told him it wasn"t expected, but he said he should _like_ to, if we didn"t mind. Mind! Why, we want all the money we can get!"
"I think Milner is an old dear!" agreed Carmel.
Mr. Bowden had actually managed to get away from his office after all, and had brought a niece with him in the side-car of his motor-bicycle.
He looked quite beaming, as if he meant to forget the law for a few hours, and to enjoy himself. He sat next to Cousin Clare, chatting affably and admiring the arrangements.
A piano had been carried out on to the lawn for the occasion, and Miss Lowe, the music mistress, took her seat at it. She was supported by a small school orchestra of three violins and violoncello, and together they struck up some Eastern music. When it was well started there was a flashing of white among the bushes on the farther side of the lawn, and out came tripping a bevy of charming wood nymphs. They were all clad in Greek chitons, very delicately draped, their hair was bound with gold fillets, and their arms and feet were bare. They held aloft garlands of flowers, and circling on that part of the lawn which formed the stage, they went through the postures of a beautiful and intricate cla.s.sic dance.
Viewed against the background of trees and bushes it was a remarkably pretty performance. There were no accessories of limelight or "make-up"