"Horrible! I'm glad it's over," said Lucia coldly.
"Magnificent! Encore! Encore!" cried Gerald enthusiastically.
But the scene was over, and no applause could recall the actress. Two or
three graceful or gay pictures followed, but Jean was in none, and each
lacked the charm which real talent lends to the simplest part.
"Coventry, you are wanted," called a voice. And to everyone's surprise,
Coventry went, though heretofore he had always refused to exert himself
when handsome actors were in demand.
"What part am I to spoil?" he asked, as he entered the green room, where
several excited young gentlemen were costuming and attitudinizing.
"A fugitive cavalier. Put yourself into this suit, and lose no time
asking questions. Miss Muir will tell you what to do. She is in the
tableau, so no one will mind you," said the manager pro tem, throwing a
rich old suit toward Coventry and resuming the painting of a moustache
on his own boyish face.
A gallant cavalier was the result of Gerald's hasty toilet, and when
he appeared before the ladies a general glance of admiration was
bestowed upon him.
"Come along and be placed; Jean is ready on the stage." And Bella ran
before him, exclaiming to her governess, "Here he is, quite splendid.
Wasn't he good to do it?"
Miss Muir, in the charmingly prim and puritanical dress of a Roundhead
damsel, was arranging some shrubs, but turned suddenly and dropped the
green branch she held, as her eye met the glittering figure advancing
toward her.
"You!" she said with a troubled look, adding low to Bella, "Why did you
ask him? I begged you not."
"He is the only handsome man here, and the best actor if he likes. He
won't play usually, so make the most of him." And Bella was off to
finish powdering her hair for "The Marriage à la Mode."
"I was sent for and I came. Do you prefer some other person?" asked
Coventry, at a loss to understand the half-anxious, half-eager
expression of the face under the little cap.
It changed to one of mingled annoyance and resignation as she said, "It
is too late. Please kneel here, half behind the shrubs; put down your
hat, and--allow me--you are too elegant for a fugitive."
As he knelt before her, she disheveled his hair, pulled his lace collar
awry, threw away his gloves and sword, and half untied the cloak that
hung about his shoulders.
"That is better; your paleness is excellent--nay, don't spoil it. We are
to represent the picture which hangs in the Hall. I need tell you no
more. Now, Roundheads, place yourselves, and then ring up the curtain."
With a smile, Coventry obeyed her; for the picture was of two lovers,
the young cavalier kneeling, with his arm around the waist of the girl,
who tries to hide him with her little mantle, and presses his head to
her bosom in an ecstasy of fear, as she glances back at the approaching
pursuers. Jean hesitated an instant and shrank a little as his hand
touched her; she blushed deeply, and her eyes fell before his. Then, as
the bell rang, she threw herself into her part with sudden spirit. One
arm half covered him with her cloak, the other pillowed his head on the
muslin kerchief folded over her bosom, and she looked backward with such
terror in her eyes that more than one chivalrous young spectator longed
to hurry to the rescue. It lasted but a moment; yet in that moment
Coventry experienced another new sensation. Many women had smiled on
him, but he had remained heart-whole, cool, and careless, quite
unconscious of the power which a woman possesses and knows how to use,
for the weal or woe of man. Now, as he knelt there with a soft arm about
him, a slender waist yielding to his touch, and a maiden heart throbbing
against his cheek, for the first time in his life he felt the
indescribable spell of womanhood, and looked the ardent lover to
perfection. Just as his face assumed this new and most becoming aspect,
the curtain dropped, and clamorous encores recalled him to the fact that
Miss Muir was trying to escape from his hold, which had grown painful in
its unconscious pressure. He sprang up, half bewildered, and looking as
he had never looked before.