A Pasteboard Crown: A Story of the New York StageMorris, Clara
General
A Pasteboard Crown: A Story of the New York Stage
Morris, Clara
Actresses -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Theater -- Fiction
For Nonna Angelique came trotting up with a long scarf of silky old
blond lace trailing from her hands, and Sybil, turning toward her, gave
a cry of rapture. Drawer, too, after drawer had been drawn out from the
chiffonier, and from their velvet-lined depths there came a blaze and
glow and gleam and such dancing prismatic colors of violet, indigo,
blue, green, yellow, orange, red, from jewels in such good and careful
setting that, imitation though they were, they commanded admiration even
in broad daylight.
Among these crowns and crosses, stomachers and necklaces, there were
minutely exact copies of some famous originals treasured in the museums
of Europe. Nor were these ornaments cheap; the price of many of them was
told in hundreds of dollars, not tens. And Sybil, while missing their
real value, which lay in their historical accuracy, might well be
forgiven for her childish delight in their meretricious splendor.
"Oh, how I wish Dorrie could see, too!" she exclaimed, and the snuffy
old man nudged his rumpled old wife with his elbow, and, looking at
Sybil's flushed and happy young face, they wagged their heads
knowingly.
And Stewart Thrall said to himself: "To watch her countenance is like
watching the surface of a land-locked lake--one moment glass-smooth
beneath the sun, then reflecting a slow white cloud, then breaking into
ripples, fretting into waves and blackening to sudden storm! Ah, surely
you are the headlong Capulet in love with love!" and his meditation
broke off short.
Lefebvre was advancing, diamond coronet in hand, and he anxiously waited
results. Nonna Angelique, with stumpy brown fingers, had still further
loosened Sybil's black hair and fluffed it out, crooning to herself the
while, and had turned her head this way and that, bent it down, lifted
it, then put her hand out for the coronet her husband brought, placed
it, drew back a step, then tore it off to a chorus of, "o! no!"
"Too old!" said Lefebvre.
"C'est cela! too old!" nodded Nonna Angelique.
"Too old!" acquiesced Thrall.
Then was handed over a golden net, studded with jewels; and oh, Sybil
did hope they would let her wear that!
Old Angelique put it on with deft hands. "Mais comme elle est belle!"
she exclaimed; "but----"
Thrall shook his head and repeated: "Beautiful, but----"
And the old man explained the "buts" fully with the remark: "Too
Zingary, n'est ce pas?"
"Yes! yes!" cried Nonna, throwing her arms over her head and snapping
her fingers to imitate castanets. "Oui! oui! too Zingary--too
gypsy-like!" and off came the golden net.
A head-piece of colored stones barely touched her brow when, with a
contemptuous "Bah! too Egyptian" it was returned to the drawer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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