The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor

ies of tableaux at their lawn fête that night? If so, would the house-party at The Locusts proceed immediately to The Beeches to spend the morning in the rehearsing of t

fear that maybe she was not included in the invitation, since she was a child, and all the guests at The Beeches were grown, could scarcely finish her breakfast in her excitement. But long before the girls were ready to start,

t made her comply so willingly to her mother's request to show her some especial attention. Mary, spoiled by the companionship of the older girls for the society of those her own age, was afraid that Elise w

she felt as if she were riding straight into a beautiful old Southern story of ante-bellum days. Back into the times when people had leisure to make hospitality their chief business in life, and could afford for every day to be a holiday.

ing the bonnet and the other the shawl, but nobody seemed to think it necessary to introduce Elise's little friend to the other gue

e tableaux. Ranald, with a huge sheet of cardboard and the library shears, was manufacturing a pair of giant scissors, half as long as himself, which a blonde in blue was waiting to cover

"She lives here in the Valley. And that's Malcolm MacIntyre, my cousin, who is sittin

eting. She told herself that she might have expected it, for she knew that Malcolm was Joyce's age; but she had associated them so long with the handsome little fellows in the photograph Lloyd

hand for Miss Howe, "is Mister Alex Shelby. He lives in Louisville, but he comes out to the Va

ily Maid of Astolat.' But when Bernice found that Lloyd had already been asked to be Elaine, she was furious. She said she was just as good as engaged to him, or something of the sort, I don't know exactly what. And she knew, if Lloyd had a chance to monopolize him in that beautiful tableau, what it would lead to

"I don't see how she can insinuate such mean thing

inking the most of Lloyd. But everybody knows that it is simply because she is more attractive than Bernice. As Ranald says Lloyd isn't a girl to fish for attent

would hurt her dreadfully to know that anybody talked so mea

id not admire and love the "Queen of Hearts," who to her was without fault or flaw. All the rest of that day and evening, she could not look in Bernice Howe's directio

ction of a famous painting called June, in which seven garlanded maidens in Greek costumes posed in a bewitching rose bower. Quantities of roses were needed for the background, great masses of them that would not fade and droop; and since previous experience had proved that artificial flowers may be used with fine stage effect in th

since the long folds of cheesecloth could be held in place by gi

ne described in Tennyson's poem of the Lily Maid of Astolat. From time to time, Lloyd, who was to personate Elaine, was called to stretch hersel

stretched out on the bier in a modern shirtwaist suit with side-combs in her hair. She giggled as she meekly crossed her hands on her breast, with a piece of newspaper folded in one to represent the letter, and a bunch of lilac leaves in the other, whic

d wig I have for you, and the black robe. You'll look like Methuselah. And Lloyd will be covered with a cloth of gold, and her hair will be rippling down

here won't understa

I'll show you just the part she'll read for this scene, so you'll know how long you have to pose to-night. It begins with those lines, 'And the

been the desire to see Sir Feal the Faithful face to face, and hear him address the Princess. The play of the "Rescue of the Princess Winsome" had become a real thing to her, that she felt that it must have happened; that Ma

est, and Lloyd lay laughing on the shaky bier becau

playfully held out his pole for her to pull herself up by, Mary felt that something was wrong. A playful manner was not seemly on the part of a Sir Feal. It wou

land had committed to memory several pages of the "Idylls of the King," and had often run races repeating them, to see which could finish f

there was dol

. .

umb old servito

mb, went upward

hand the lily

her bright hair

overlid was c

ist, and she he

e, and that cle

or she did no

, and lay as th

been watching Lloyd in the boat, Elise had been summoned to the house to try on the dress she was to wear in the tableau of the gipsy fortune-teller. The people on the porch had divided into little groups which she did not feel free to join. She was afraid the

asn't really jealous of Elise because she was to be tambourine girl in the gipsy scene, but she did wish, with a little fluttering sigh, that she could have had some smal

and I'm not slim and graceful enough to be a tambourine girl, but it would be so nice to have some part

Anna Moore and Keith were seated. Malcolm was just across from them, with Miss Bonham on one side and Betty and Lieutenant Stanley on the other. Mary looked around inquiringly for her sister. She was with Rob no

ried chicken, he said, laughing, "Look at Elaine now. Tennyson wouldn't know his Lily Maid if he saw her in thi

dreadful goose to go floating down the rivah to a man who didn't care two straws about her. She'd much bettah have held on to a wish-bone and an olive and st

ide glance at Phil. "That always seemed such a beautifully rom

red it a touching situation, and more than once had pictured, in pleasing d

Then if she had come rowing up in a nice trig little craft, instead of that spooky old funeral barge, and had offered me a wish-bone and an olive, I'd have thought them twice as fetching as a lily and t

of mooning over Lancelot's old shield, and embroidering things for it, and acting as if it were something too precious for ordinary mortals to touch-if she'd batted it into

three knightliest-looking men she knew, the three who, she supposed, would make ideal lovers, had laughed at one of the most romantic situations in all poesy, and had agreed that Elaine was silly and sentimental. Maybe, she thought with bur

ould have been inflexible to the extent of making mud pies on Lancelot's shield. Unconsciously her reconstruction began then and there, for although the seeds sown by the laughing discussion at the picnic table

ptu stage. The vine-covered tea-house and a dense clump of shrubbery formed the background. Rows of Japanese lanterns strung from the gate to the house, and from pillar to pillar of the wide porches, gave a

ng the arrangement of each group behind the scenes, and then hurrying back with Elise t

re than usual in some instances, for while the fête had been planned for some time, the tableaux were an afterthou

ople were left in the tea-house, and Miss Allison sent Keith, Rob, Phil, and Lieutenant Logan before the curtain, with instructions to sing one of the

d not appear on the scene behind the curtain until Malcolm was dressed in his bl

n. "It's perfect. I'm going out into the audi

some one catch her sleeve. "I've left that copy of

how the moonlight transformed everything. Here was the living, breathing poem itself before her. She forgot it was Lloyd and Malcolm posing in makeshift costumes on a calico-covered dry goods box. It seemed th

d, in a low tone. "I never fel

colm answered, trying to get another g

ily. "You forget that you are

tell you that with your hair rippling down on that cloth of gold in the moonlight, and all in white, with th

her cheeks dimpling with amusement. "Hush! It's time for me to look dead," she warned, as the applause followe

ence, saw Miss Casey tragically throw up her hands, with a horrified exclamation. It was not the copy of Tenny

ast go out and explain the tableau in your own words. Ther

couldn't think of a word before all those people!" As the curtain drew slowly apar

s bell, which at Miss Allison's direction was to be rung imm

ade Miss Allison rise half-way in her seat, to see what had become of the interpreter. T

O-OH' GREETED THE

there was do

umb old servito

mb, went upward

ing it so well. It was better than Miss Casey's rendering, for it was without any professional frills and affectations; just

bier with her hair rippling down and the lily in her hand, might indeed have been the dead Elaine, so ethereal and fair

ions. But before they reached her, Lloyd had rolled off her bier to catch Mary in an impulsive hug, crying, "You we

throw herself into Miss Casey's place on the spur of the moment, and turn a failure into a brilliant success. The congratulations and compliments which she heard on

next. "I see her boat is empty. Can

that she was ready to tell all she knew. "She

echoed Phil,

n here congratulating us and shaking hands, I heard him say something to her in an undertone, and then h

e Princess

l thought

ove will r

n some gla

still lower, 'By my calendar it'

have rehearsed it so much that it is sort of second nature for th

"Then what did she say

he house with him, and that's the last

s. "Nothing's the matter, little Vicar. Let us keep inf

tched him walk away. It puzzled her all the rest of the eveni