Stanford Stories: Tales of a Young UniversityIrwin, Will
General
Stanford Stories: Tales of a Young University
Irwin, Will
College stories, American; Short stories; Stanford (Calif.) -- Fiction; Stanford University -- Fiction
Six Madonnas, from their places on the Chapel walls, gazed at the
spectacle of a student with long hair and energetic manner drilling a
chorus of young men and women from behind the preacher's desk. There was
no visible sign of agitation on the part of the six Madonnas, though an
operatic rehearsal in Chapel might be considered reason enough. To be
sure, one of them, with her feet upon a crescent moon, kept her eyes
fixed religiously on the ceiling, but this had become a habit. The
Madonnas were not surprised.
The early years of the University, when there was no assembly hall and
the temporary chapel was used for everything that did not demand the
superior accommodations of the men's gymnasium, had prepared them for
anything. They had looked calmly down upon student farces and Wednesday
evening prayer meetings, professional impersonations and baccalaureate
sermons. Once, there had been a German farce under the protection of
the Germanic Language department, by a company from town, a boisterous
play with a gigantic comedienne in a short skirt. Beside this
performance, Lillian Arnold's singing a love duet with Jack Smith was
nothing very shocking.
Connor, the man who was getting up the opera for the benefit of the
Junior Annual, waved his baton gracefully and looked pleased. The
rehearsal had gone well that afternoon, and now Cap Smith was singing
with creditable expression the love song in the last act. The experience
of Connor told him that this song would make even the bleachers at the
back of the gymnasium keep a respectful silence, which was saying a good
deal. Smith had a very pretty tenor, redeeming its lack of volume by a
sympathetic quality that was decidedly pleasant. In a song like this,
his voice came out well. There was a high note at the end to be taken
pianissimo with something else that signified "as though you meant it."
Smith could make it sound so, at any rate. One girl at the back of the
chorus always said, "Ah," under her breath when the song was ended at
rehearsal.
Lillian Arnold, who played opposite Smith in the opera, did not conceal
from herself the pleasure she took in the part. Long before rehearsals
began, she had spent her smiles upon Connor with a view to that very
role. Miss Arnold was a young person who knew the things she wanted;
one of them was Smith. 'Varsity end, champion pole-vaulter, Glee Club
tenor and Sophomore president, which means principally leading the
cotillion, he was well worth a girl's trouble. There was the more glory
in the winning of this capital prize because he was not very
enthusiastic about Roble. There was somebody up in town who took a great
deal of his blue fraternity-paper. Lillian Arnold knew about the girl in
town, so she accepted gracefully what the gods gave and was outwardly
content.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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