it was saturday morning. she had been elected a member of the portia club, and even now rehearsals were under way for the first performance the second week in december. there was to be one that morning at amy's study, the scene between rosalind, orlando, and celia. kit was orlando on account of her height and carriage. as amy said:
"you've got the air, kit, that goes with doublet and hose and lincoln green."
"lincoln green was in robin hood's time," retorted kit.
"yes, but it's all that foresty stuff, don't you know. you can play mercutio next month in the 'merchant of venice.'"
"no, i want to be shylock. i love character parts. i don't see why you have to pick out these little tame scenes when we could have lear and edgar and the fool on the heath, or dick the third or macbeth. i'd play any of those for you. we used to have plays back home just amongst us girls, and i was always the leading heavy. we even tried putting on 'faust' in the barn when the hay-lofts were empty, but that does need atmosphere."
"dear wayward, fearless sister," answered amy, kindly, "what you haven't found out here is this. thus far we can go and no farther. the faculty would expire seeing you as king lear. discreetly may ye pose as orlando, or any other gentle lad, with a sweeping cloak about thee, but i doubt if the dean would even beam on hamlet."
"i'm a splendid hamlet," kit said, thoughtfully. "i doubled in 'hamlet' and 'the raven' in the same costume down home. just the soliloquy, of course, though we'd have tried the grave-diggers scene only we didn't have any skulls."
but amy had not thought favorably of deviating from the usual program. scenes from "as you like it," as usual, was to be the first effort. kit glanced at the clock, and caught up her sweater and cap. it was quarter of ten, and she was due at amy's at ten. as she ran down-stairs, she encountered the dean, happily directing two expressmen carry a large box back into the study.
"my dear, it has come," he told her. "i'm hoping they will both be here, the amenotaph urn and the statue of annui. i do not wish to be disturbed just now while i am unpacking them, as it takes a great deal of care and delicacy and you will ask too many questions, kit, but if you will come in after lunch, i will explain the inscriptions to you."
"oh, i'd love to, uncle cassius," kit answered, eyeing the box hopefully. "i'm going up to a rehearsal at the hall."
the dean smiled absently and nodded his head at her.
"look up annui while you are there, also semele."
lysander, the puppy, bounded to meet her as she hurried down the walk, and at the sidewalk curb she found the bellamy car waiting.
"just in time," called rex, cheerily. "where are you bound for?"
kit took the seat beside him gratefully. the wind from the lake blew cuttingly, and there was a flurry of first snowflakes in the air wavering about uncertainly like birds that had lost their way.
"where's anne?" she asked. "isn't she going up to rehearsal?"
"gone down to brent's first. i'm going to stop and pick her up. she's been building a costume all the morning."
the car swung around the corner of maple avenue and down the hill towards the village, leaving lysander sitting at the corner, wailing dolefully.
brent's was the local emporium for everything needed, from the college standpoint. not only were its shelves filled with goods which varied from library supplies to latest fiction, but there was an ice cream parlor annex patronized almost entirely by students.
anne was engrossed over a selection of patterns at the counter in the back of the store. she was to play celia, and norma was rosalind. charity always said that norma's profile and long corn-colored hair brought her more undeserved honors than any qualities of excellence she possessed.
"i'm so glad you came along just now," sighed anne. "mother says i ought to dress very simply, but a duke's daughter would have even a stuff dress cut in fashion, wouldn't she? besides, i can show a lot of taste in my cap. norma's got a perfectly wonderful cloak made of a dark green felt piano cover."
kit helped her select a dull violet goods, with white underslip that showed through the slashes in the sleeves. anne had been hovering over an old rose that absolutely killed any glint of color in her light brown hair.
"never, never," warned kit, "let old rose come near you, if you've got freckles or sandy hair. don't you notice, anne, how i cling to all the soft pastel nondescript tones? that's because my eldest sister is an artist, and we all have to live up to it more or less now. when jean wants a new dress she slips away and communes with nature, until she's hit the right tone values. you should have seen her face one day when some one asked doris her favorite color, and she said, 'plaid.'"
"we're going to be late to rehearsal," anne declared with a sigh, as they rose to leave.
"we are late now," rejoined kit, cheerfully. "they'll prize us all the more if we keep ourselves kind of scarce. rex told me to order walnut sundae for him, and wait until he comes back."
just at this moment anne laid her finger on her lips and glanced impressively at a table on the other side of the room. there sat amy with peggy porter and norma, all of them dreamily imbibing ice cream sodas, just as though shakespearian rehearsals were occasions unknown in their engagement calendars.
kit rose and crossed the room with caution until she stood behind amy and intoned sepulchrally from macbeth:
"what ho! ye secret, black and midnight hags, what is't ye do?"
