Part 44 (1/2)
”Well, she holds them at any rate. I daresay it's more than you do with yours.”
”Oh yes, she holds them; there's no mistake about that. 'I hold them, I hope, _hein_?' she seems to say to all the house.” The young English professional laughed good-humouredly, and Sherringham was struck with the pleasant familiarity he had established with their brave companion.
He was knowing and ready and he said in the first _entr'acte_--they were waiting for the second to go behind--amusing perceptive things. ”They teach them to be ladylike and Voisin's always trying to show that. 'See how I walk, see how I sit, see how quiet I am and how I have _le geste rare_. Now can you say I ain't a lady?' She does it all as if she had a cla.s.s.”
”Well, to-night I'm her cla.s.s,” said Miriam.
”Oh I don't mean of actresses, but of _femmes du monde_. She shows them how to act in society.”
”You had better take a few lessons,” Miriam retorted.
”Ah you should see Voisin in society,” Peter interposed.
”Does she go into it?” Mrs. Rooth demanded with interest.
Her friend hesitated. ”She receives a great many people.”
”Why shouldn't they when they're nice?” Mrs. Rooth frankly wanted to know.
”When the people are nice?” Miriam asked.
”Now don't tell me she's not what one would wish,” said Mrs. Rooth to Sherringham.
”It depends on what that is,” he darkly smiled.
”What I should wish if she were my daughter,” the old woman rejoined blandly.
”Ah wish your daughter to act as well as that and you'll do the handsome thing for her!”
”Well, she _seems_ to feel what she says,” Mrs. Rooth piously risked.
”She has some stiff things to say. I mean about her past,” Basil Dashwood remarked. ”The past--the dreadful past--on the stage!”
”Wait till the end, to see how she comes out. We must all be merciful!”
sighed Mrs. Rooth.
”We've seen it before; you know what happens,” Miriam observed to her mother.
”I've seen so many I get them mixed.”
”Yes, they're all in queer predicaments. Poor old mother--what we show you!” laughed the girl.
”Ah it will be what _you_ show me--something n.o.ble and wise!”
”I want to do this; it's a magnificent part,” said Miriam.
”You couldn't put it on in London--they wouldn't swallow it,” Basil Dashwood declared.
”Aren't there things they do there to get over the difficulties?” the girl inquired.
”You can't get over what _she did_!”--her companion had a rueful grimace.