Part 8 (1/2)

Tyltyl.Because they have nothing to say....

Mytyl.Why have they nothing to say?...

Tyltyl.You're a nuisance....

[A pause]

Mytyl.When will you turn the diamond?

Tyltyl.You heard Light say that I was to wait until midnight, because that disturbs them less....

Mytyl.Why does that disturb them less?...

Tyltyl.Because that is when they go out to take the air....

Mytyl.Is it not midnight yet?...

Tyltyl.Do you see the church clock?...

Mytyl.Yes, I can even see the small hand....

Tyltyl.Well, midnight is just going to strike.... There!...Do you hear?...

[The clock strikes twelve.]

Mytyl.I want to go away!...

Tyltyl.Not now.... I am going to turn the diamond....

Mytyl.No, no!...Don't!...I want to go away!...I am so frightened, little brother!...I am terribly frightened!...

Tyltyl.But there is no danger....

Mytyl.I don't want to see the dead!...I don't want to see them!...

Tyltyl.Very well, you shall not see them; shut your eyes...

Mytyl(clinging to TYLTYL'S TYLTYL'Sclothes). Tyltyl, I can't stay!...

No, I can't possibly!...They are going to come out of the ground!...

Tyltyl.Don't tremble like that.... They will only come out for a moment....

Mytyl.But you're trembling too!...They will be awful!...

Tyltyl.It is time, the hour is pa.s.sing....

[TYLTYLturns the diamond.]

Petrova could not be frightened enough. Miss Jay stopped the rehearsal over and over again.

'Petrova, dear, remember you are frightened. You are in a churchyard alone with your little brother in the middle of the night, and you know that in a minute or two he is going to turn the diamond on his cap which you think will bring all the ghosts out of their graves. You are cold and s.h.i.+vering....' She stopped because Petrova was crying. She put her arm round her. 'Don't cry because you can't act, my child; save those tears up for when you are acting. If you could cry like that when you say: ”I want to go away!...I am so frightened, little brother!” then we should get something from you; now we get nothing except Petrova saying lines that she has learnt.'

Petrova went on sobbing.

'I don't feel like Mytyl,' she choked, 'just standing here in uniform looking exactly like Pauline. I don't even feel she's my brother; it doesn't feel like night; if only I was dressed up....'

After that the children were dressed for every rehearsal. They did not wear the actual clothes they would wear at the matinee, of course; but Pauline wore shorts and a s.h.i.+rt, and Petrova an ap.r.o.n and a red-riding-hood cloak over her frock. The clothes made a great difference: as soon as they were put on they were Tyltyl and Mytyl, and though Petrova was still often made to say a sentence ten or twenty times over at each rehearsal, people stopped wondering if she was good enough to play the part.

In the dancing cla.s.ses the same strenuous work was going on. Even children as small and smaller than Posy were expected to rehea.r.s.e thirteen hours a week, as well as doing their ordinary lessons. Posy had nothing to say, but she danced as an Hour, and a Star, and she was an unborn child. To her the dancing rehearsals were easy; but they caused a lot of tears among the other children. They were never allowed to forget that they were training for the professional stage, and slovenly work was therefore inexcusable. The dances, once learnt, had to be performed as to timing, en trance, and sequence of steps. Any child who, after reasonable rehearsal, made a mistake was turned out, and no arguing was allowed; sobs and pleading fell on deaf ears. Even Posy had to concentrate so hard that she usually slept all the way home. Sometimes Petrova and Pauline did, too, but they were rather ashamed when they did. There was some excuse, they thought, for Posy, who would not be eight until September, but none at all for themselves.

Over the making of the clothes Mrs Simpson, Cook, and Clara helped Nana. Each child had three changes. Tyltyl and Mytyl had only night things when the curtain rose; but they then changed into very plain peasant dress, and from that into their grand fairy-tale frocks. Pauline, as Hop O' My Thumb, had scarlet satin knickers and a pale blue satin coat, and Petrova in Red Riding Hood's dress - a jade-green satin frock and a black-velvet bodice and white blouse and ap.r.o.n under her scarlet cloak. Posy's dresses were only little bits of chiffon; but they took time, and time was a thing there was very little of in that house. Even fittings for the dresses had to be squeezed out of time that belonged to walks or meals.

One day at the beginning of July, when the children really had stopped making mistakes at rehearsals, and were so tired of the play that they wished that it had never been written, and so tired from hard work that they thought everybody else was being horrid to them, they went down on to the tube station at Gloucester Road, and there saw the first poster about the matinee. At the top it said all about the hospital, and under that, very large, 'Matinee of The Blue Bird', and under that, 'By Maurice Maeterlinck'; then under that, in small letters, 'Performed by the students of...'; then in large letters 'The Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training'; then followed a list of all the famous ex-students who were dancing and acting. Right at the bottom was written 'Tyltyl...Pauline Fossil'; 'Mytyl...Petrova Fossil'.

Nana and the three children stared at the poster, reading every word from top to bottom. When they got into the train, Posy expressed the pride that they all felt.

'To think that we should have our name stuck up in a train!'

CHAPTER VIII.

The Matinee ON the day of the matinee Pauline woke very early, but Petrova was awake before her. Petrova was sitting up in bed with both her hands holding that bit that comes in the middle just below the bottom ribs. the day of the matinee Pauline woke very early, but Petrova was awake before her. Petrova was sitting up in bed with both her hands holding that bit that comes in the middle just below the bottom ribs.

'What are you doing?' Pauline asked.

Petrova did not move her hands.

'This bit of me feels very queer - like when you miss a step on the moving staircase and think you are going to fall to the bottom.'

Pauline shook herself. Then she held the same place.

'That bit of me feels the same. Do you think it's the matinee this afternoon?'

'Yes.' Petrova's voice wobbled with fright. 'I'm afraid I'll forget my words.'

'Even if you did, Miss Jay is standing in the prompt corner with the book, and she says if we look at her she will tell us what to say.'

'I know.' Petrova sounded very depressed. 'But all the same I do, do do wish it was over.' wish it was over.'

Pauline thought a moment, and thinking of the afternoon, her inside felt most extraordinary.

'Oh, so do I,' she agreed with fervour.

Nana came in, and found them both holding their middles.