you did look so funny. I think I had better not
pretend to be Italian; I can't move my hands gracefully, and I feel
awkward all the time,' she said.

'Luckily I have not to be graceful, and I have a palette and paint-brush
in my hands all the time; that gives me some occupation for my hands,'
observed Doreen.

'Yes, but I don't believe you ought to point at people with your
paint-brush; the Italians are a very polite nation, and I do not think
they would do such a thing as that,' commented Vava.

Doreen looked grave. 'But I've got to point, and how am I to point
except with my paint-brush, or the palette, which would be worse? I have
one in each hand, and I haven't a third hand,' she said, after
consideration.

Vava laughed. 'I suppose you can put one of them down for a minute.
Giotto did not paint all day long,' she suggested.

'No, but I am going to. I would not be without them for the world, and I
should feel as if I had six pairs of hands. I shall do like you, and not
attempt to be an Italian,' she announced.

However, the two of them were very enthusiastic players, and at the
dress-rehearsal it was doubtful which was the better. Vava, of course
was prettier, and acted well, but hers was a difficult part; and Doreen
seemed to have become an Italian artist for the time being, and entered
into the life and feelings of a Florentine painter of the Middle Ages,
and her dress was an exact copy of Giotto's. It was as well that the
girls had become word-perfect in their play before the last week of the
term; for that week, at least, Vava would have found it difficult to fix
her mind on it. However, it was arranged that the dress-rehearsal should
come off before the examination began, so as to leave the girls' minds
free for them, and the girls all knew their parts a week beforehand.

Vava gave herself up to preparing for her examination, and took up
nearly two hours of Mr. Jones's time one Saturday morning in having her
algebra explained to her; and Stella, finding she could not stop this,
decided that it would be best to take no notice of Mr. James Jones's
goodness, and treat it as a personal matter between him and Vava, and
have nothing to do with the matter, which was also Vava's opinion; for,
as she said candidly to Stella, 'You are not so civil to him that he
would care to do you a favour.'

Afterwards she felt that her candour both to Stella and the junior
partner had been rather a mistake.

CHAPTER X