"I shall be delighted to send you some every evening for a month, if
you'll only do this for me on Saturday," said he. "It is on Saturday
night those two ladies are coming to the theatre; and you were good
enough to promise to ask them to your room and offer them some tea. The
younger of the two--that is, Miss Cunyngham--has never been behind the
scenes of a theatre before, and I think she will be very pleased to be
introduced to Miss Grace Mainwaring; and don't you think it would be
rather nice of Miss Grace Mainwaring to take those flowers from her
dress and present them to the young lady, as a souvenir of her visit?"
She wheeled round, and looked at him with a curious scrutiny.
"Well, this _is_ something new!" she said, as she turned to the mirror
again. "I thought it was the fortunate Harry Thornhill who received all
kinds of compliments and attentions from his lady adorers; I wasn't
aware he ever returned them. But do you think it is quite fair, Mr.
Moore? If this is some girl who has a love-sick fancy for Harry
Thornhill, don't you think you should drop Harry Thornhill and play
David Garrick, to cure the poor thing?"
"Considering that Miss Cunyngham has never seen Harry Thornhill," he was
beginning, when she interrupted him:
"Oh, only heard him sing in private? Quite enough, I suppose, to put
nonsense into a silly school-girl's head."
"When you see this young lady," he observed, "I don't think you will say
she looks like a silly school-girl. She's nearly as tall as I am, for
one thing."
"I hate giraffes," said Miss Burgoyne, tartly, "Do you put a string
round her neck when you go out walking with her?"
He was just on the point of saying something about greenroom manners,
but thought better of it.
"Now, Miss Burgoyne," he said to her, "on Saturday night you are going
to put on your most winning way--you can do it when you like--and you
are going to captivate and fascinate those two people until they'll go
away home with the conviction that you are the most charming and
delightful creature that ever lived. You can do it easily enough if you
like--no one better. You are going to be very nice to them, and you'll
send them away just in love with Grace Mainwaring."
Miss Burgoyne altered her tone a little.
"If I give your giraffe friend those flowers, I suppose you expect me to
tell lies as well?" she asked, with some approach to good-humor.
"About what?"
"Oh, about being delighted to make her acquaintance, and that kind of
thing."
"I have no doubt you will be as pleased to make her acquaintance as she
will be to make yours," said he, "and a few civil words never do any
harm."
Here Miss Burgoyne was called. She went to the little side-table and
sipped some of her home-brewed lemonade; then he opened the door for
her, and together they went up into the wings.
"Tall, is she?" continued Miss Burgoyne, as they were looking on at Mr.
Fred Collier's buffooneries out there on the stage. "Is she as silent
and stupid as her brother?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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