When she went back with Mr. Brandreth to the hall, which seemed to be also
the drawing-room, she found that Mrs. Brandreth had lighted the fire on
the hearth, though it was rather a warm day without, for the sake of the
effect. She was sitting in the chimney-seat, and shielding her face from
the blaze with an old-fashioned feather hand-screen.
"Now don't you think we have a lovely little home?" she demanded.
Mrs. Munger began to break out in its praise, but she shook the screen
silencingly at her.
"No, no! I want Miss Kilburn's unbiassed opinion. Don't you speak, Mrs.
Munger! Now haven't we?"
Mrs. Brandreth made Annie assent to the superiority of her cottage in
detail. She recapitulated the different facts of the architecture and
furnishing, from each of which she seemed to acquire personal merit, and
she insisted that Percy should show some of them again. "We think it's a
little picture," she concluded, and once more Annie felt obliged to murmur
her acquiescence.
At last Mrs. Munger said that she must go to lunch, and was going to take
Annie with her; Annie said she must lunch at home; and then Mrs. Brandreth
pressed them both to stay to lunch with her. "You shall have a cup of tea
out of a piece of real Satsuma," she said; but they resisted. "I don't
believe," she added, apparently relieved by their persistence, and losing a
little anxiety of manner, "that Percy's had any chance to consult you on a
very important point about your theatricals, Miss Kilburn."
"Oh, that will do some other time, mother," said Mr. Brandreth.
"No, no! Now! And you can have Mrs. Munger's opinion too. You know Miss Sue
Northwick is going to be Juliet?"
"No!" shouted Mrs. Munger. "I thought she had refused positively. When did
she change her mind?"
"She's just sent Percy a note. We were talking it over when you came, and
Percy was going over to tell you."
"Then it is _sure_ to be a success," said Mrs. Munger, with a
solemnity of triumph.
"Yes, but Percy feels that it complicates one point more than ever--"
"It's a question that always comes up in amateur dramatics," said Mr.
Brandreth, with reluctance, "and it always will; and of course it's
particularly embarrassing in _Romeo and Juliet_. If they don't show
any affection--it's very awkward and stiff; and if--"
"I never approved of those liberties on the stage," said Mrs. Brandreth.
"I tell Percy that it's my principal objection to it. I can't make it
seem nice. But he says that it's essential to the effect. Now _I_
say that they might just incline their heads toward each other without
_actually_, you know. But Percy is afraid that it won't do, especially
in the parting scene on the balcony--so passionate, you know--it won't do
simply to--They must _act_ like lovers. And it's such a great point to
get Miss Sue Northwick to take the part, that he mustn't risk losing her by
anything that might seem--"