She did not attempt to make room for Lemoyne. She was glad to have no
need to do so; Lemoyne was deeply engrossed otherwise--"Annabella" and
her "antics" were almost ready for the public eye. The first of May
would see the performance, and the numerous rehearsals were exacting,
whether as regarded the effort demanded or the time. Every spare hour
was going into them, as well as many an hour that could hardly be
spared. Lemoyne, who had been cast originally for a minor female part,
now found himself transferred, through the failure of a principal, to a
more important one. For him, then, rehearsals were more exigent than
ever. He cut his Psychology once or twice, nor could he succeed, during
office hours, in keeping his mind on office-routine. His superiors
became impatient and then protestant. The annual spring dislocation of
ordered student life was indeed a regular feature of the year's last
term; yet to push indulgence as far as Arthur Lemoyne was pushing
it----!
Cope was concerned; then worried. "Arthur," he said, "be reasonable
about this. You've got real work to do, remember."
But Lemoyne's real work was in the musical comedy. "This is the biggest
chance I've ever had in my life," he declared, "and I don't want to
lose out on it."
So Cope rolled away to the dunes and left Lemoyne behind for one
Saturday night rehearsal the more.
Duneland gave him a tonic welcome. Under a breezy sky the far edge of
the lake stood out clear. Along its nearer edge the vivacious waves
tumbled noisily. The steady pines were welcoming the fresh early
foliage of such companions as dressed and undressed in accord with the
calendar; the wrecked trunks which had given up life and its leafy
pomps seemed somehow less sombre and stark; and in the threatened
woodlands behind the hills a multiplicity of small new greeneries
stirred the autumn's dead leaves and brightened up the thickets of
shrubbery. The arbutus had companioned the hepatica, and the squads of
the lupines were busily preparing their panoply of lavender-blue
racemes. Nature was breaking bounds. On the inland horizon rose the
vast bulk of the prison. As on other excursions, nobody tried too hard
to see it.
"It's all too lovely," exclaimed Medora Phillips. "And what is quite as
good," she was able to declare, "the house itself is all right." Winter
had not weakened its roof nor wrenched away its storm-windows; no
irresponsible wayfarer had used it for a lodging, nor had any casual
marauder entered to despoil. Medora directed the disposition of the
hamper of food with a relieved air and sent Cope down with Peter for an
armful or two of driftwood from the assertive shore.
"And you, Carolyn," she said, "see if the oil-stove will really go."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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