The Young O'Briens: Being an Account of Their Sojourn in LondonWestrup, Margaret
General
The Young O'Briens: Being an Account of Their Sojourn in London
Westrup, Margaret
Family life -- Fiction; Irish -- England -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction
"Yesterday Aunt Kezia was holding forth on the vulgarity of any but
grocers’ assistants and ’sich-like’ waiting in a queue outside a
theatre."
Down in the kitchen a scandalised Sarah looked on while they "foraged."
She held a table-cloth in one hand and two table napkins in the other.
Agitatedly she sought to thrust them upon the O’Briens, while they sat
on the table and ate cold jam-tart, bread and cheese, and apples.
Later, as they hurried out of the gate—Molly, gloveless, working her
arms into her coat—she called after them:—
"You’ll be faint with ’unger, missansir!"
On the omnibus Molly discovered that she had brought odd gloves with
her.
As they drew near the theatre they were overcome with a sudden fear that
they would be too late to get seats in the front row and they scrambled
anyhow down the omnibus steps. Sheila Pat took a flying leap that
brought down upon her shouts from the conductor and from the drivers of
two cabs. The Atom, safe and sound on the curb, drew herself up with
dignity.
"Really, in this _London_ a person can’t do a thing at all, without
being interfered with!"
Then they ran. When they arrived at the theatre, they found only about
ten people there before them. Denis assured them they would get
front-row seats, and they exulted.
The long wait did not seem long to them. But their money flew. There
was the poor man who tied himself into horrible knots; the newspaper
boy, who had blue eyes, and whom they thought might be Irish. When he
thanked them for the sixpence, his Cockney accent shattered their hopes.
They gave pennies to the little pink-nosed boy whose sister played the
flageolet, and to an old man who sang.
Then the move began. A very big man directly behind Sheila Pat looked
down amusedly at that excessively small, but excessively determined
young person. He recognised the fact that the Atom meant no one to push
in front of her. In the front row Sheila Pat sat her down, and looked
around, quivering with excitement.
Just before the curtain went up Ted Lancaster strolled into the stalls,
and sat down in front of the Atom. She bent forward and dug eager
little fingers into his shoulder.
"Won’t you be speakin’ to me at all, then, Mr. Lancaster?"
He turned.
"Why, it’s my lit—my Irish friend! How-do-you-do, Miss O’Brien?"
"Oh, please," said Sheila Pat, "is there anyone _Irish_ in the play?"
"I’m afraid not. But you’ll lose your heart to Monsieur Beaucaire,
though he’s only a Frenchman!"
She shook an obstinate head.
"I won’t!"
At the end of the first act he turned to her. A little faint pink
colour dyed her cheeks, her eyes were wide and bright.
"Well? How about your heart?"
"I—I _haven’t_! I won’t!"
"I love him!" said Molly. "And oh, I _loathe_ that wicked Duke of
Winterset!"
When the curtain went down at the end of the first scene of the second
act, he turned to her again. Her eyes were brighter, her cheeks pinker
than before. She refused to look at him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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