letic age.

Perkins. I suppose it wouldn't do to turn the water off in case of
danger.

Barlow. It could be done, but it wouldn't look well. The audience
might think the fountain had had an attack of stage fright. Where is
the entrance from the ballroom to be?

Yardsley. It ought to be where the fireplace is. That's one reason
why I think the portieres will look well there.

Mrs. Perkins. But I don't see how that can be. Nobody could come in
there. There wouldn't be room behind for any one to stand, would
there?

Bradley. I don't know. That fireplace is large, and only two people
have to come in that way. The rising curtain discloses Gwendoline
just having come in. If Hartley, the villain, and Jack Pendleton,
the manly young navy officer, who represents virtue, and dashes in at
the right moment to save Gwendoline, could sit close and stand the
discomfort of it, they might squeeze in there and await their cues.

Mrs. Perkins. Sit in the fireplace?

Yardsley. Yes. Why not?

Perkins. Don't you interfere, Bess, Yardsley is managing this show,
and if he wants to keep the soubrette waiting on the mantel-piece
it's his lookout, and not ours.

Yardsley. By-the-way, Thaddeus, Wilkins has backed out, and you are
to play the villain.

Perkins. I? Never!

Barlow. Oh, but you must. All you have to do is frown and rant and
look real bad.

Perkins. But I can't act.

Bradley. That doesn't make any difference. We don't want a villain
that the audience will fall in love with. That would be immoral.
The more you make them despise you, the better.

Perkins. Well--I positively decline to sit in the fireplace. I tell
you that right now.

Mrs. Bradley. Don't waste time talking about petty details. Let the
entrance be there. We can hang the curtain on a frame two feet out
from the wall, so that there will be plenty of room behind for
Hartley and Pendleton to stand. The frame can be fastened to the
wood-work of the mantel-piece. It may take a screw or two to hold
it, but they'll be high up, so nobody will notice the holes in the
wood after it comes down. The point that bothers me is this wall-
paper. People don't put wall-papers on their conservatories.

Perkins (sarcastically). I'll have the room repapered in sheet-
glass. Or we might borrow a few hot-bed covers and hang them from
the picture moulding, so that the place would look like a real
greenhouse.

Yardsley. Napoleonic idea.