The Story Book Girls Part 49

"Oh," said the robust, unheeding Jean, "what do your people say to that?"

"Papa says he won't have me butchered," said Elsie with a radiant smile.

"Look here," said the fencing girl, with her eyes still searching that "wild flower of a face" of Elsie's. "Will your father come and see my tenements?"

The answer of Elsie became historic in the girls' club.

"I think he will," said she. "He was up the Ferris wheel last night."

CHAPTER XXVI

Under Royal Patronage

Mrs. Leighton made use of the fact of the Clutterbuck's being in London to write to the Professor's wife.

"We have been so anxious about Elma, who now however is picking up. But we have the saddest news of Miss Annie. It seems as though she would not live more than a day or two. If I have bad news to send to Mabel and Jean, may I send it through you? It would be such a kindness to me if I knew you were there to tell them."

Mrs. Clutterbuck responded in that loving tremulous way she had of delighting in being useful. She could not believe in her good fortune with the Professor. After all, it had been worry, concern about material things, which had clouded his affection for a time. He had never been able to give himself to the world, as he desired to give himself, because of that grind at lectures which he so palpably abhorred. Now even the lectures were a delight, since he had leisure besides where he did not need to reflect on the certainty of "the rainy day." He was once more the hero of her girlish dreams. How magnificent not to lose one's ideal! They both rejoiced in the young ardour of Elsie, whose courage made leaps at each new unfolding of the "loveliness of life."

It was very delightful now that the two Leightons should come under those gently stretching wings of the reinvigorated Professor's wife.

At the time of a call from Mrs. Clutterbuck, Mabel and Jean had just received tickets from Lady Emily for a concert at a great house. The concert, to those who bought guinea tickets, was not so important as the fact that royal ears would listen to it. Herr Slavska disposed of the affair in a speech which could not be taken down in words. His theme was the rush of the "stupids" to see a royal personage, and the tragedy of the poor "stars" of artists who could hardly afford the cab which protected their costumes. Yet some members of his profession, he averred, would rather lose a meal or two than lose the chance of seeing their name in red letters and of bowing to encores from royalty.

"And why not?" asked Jean. "I think it would be lovely to bow to royalty."

"Where is ze art?" he asked as a wind-up. "Nowhere!"

"That's nonsense, you know," Jean confided afterwards. "I think there must be a lot of art in being able to sing to kings and queens.

Besides, why shouldn't they wave their royal hands, and produce us, as it were--like Aladdin, you know."

Jean already saw herself at Windsor.

Mabel merely concerned herself with the fact that Mr. Green was to play.

He had not the scruples of Herr Slavska. "Although it's an abominable practice," said he. "It is the artists who make the sacrifice.

Everybody else gets something for it. The crowd gets royalty, royalty gets music, charities get gold. We get momentary applause--that is all."

"That's what I'm living for," declared Jean, "just a little, a very little momentary applause. Then I would swell like a peac.o.c.k, Mabel, I really should. The artists don't get nothing out of it after all. They get appreciation."

Mrs. Clutterbuck was intensely interested in the concert. "Do you mean to say there's to be a prince at it?" she asked.

There were to be princesses also, it seemed.

"Oh," said Mabel, "how lovely it would have been for Elsie and you to go."

She saw the experience that it would be for a little home bird of the Mrs. Clutterbuck type. She considered for a moment--"Couldn't she give up her ticket for one of them?"

Mrs. Clutterbuck saw the indecision in her face.

"No, my dear, no," said she, "I know the thought in your mind. I have a much better plan."

The pleasure of being at last able to dispense favours--transformed her face. She turned with an expectant, delighted look to Elsie.

"If we could go together," said she, "and it wouldn't be a bore to both of you to sit with two country cousins like ourselves, I should take two tickets. It would be charming."

This plan was received with the greatest acclamation.

"We ought to have a chaperon anyhow," said Jean.

It seemed the funniest thing in the world to Mabel that they should be about to be chaperoned by Mrs. Clutterbuck. In some unaccountable way it drew her more out of her loneliness than anything she had experienced in London. On the other hand, she was constantly reminding herself how much amused some people in Ridgetown would be if they only knew.

They drove to the concert on a spring day when the air had suddenly turned warm. The streets were sparkling with a radiance of budding leaves, of struggling blossom; and all the world seemed to be turning in at the great gates of the house beyond St. James'.

It was not to be expected that one should know these people, though, as Jean declared, "Every little boarding-house keeper in Bayswater could tell you who was stepping out of the carriage in front of you."

There was a great crowd inside; heated rooms and a wide vestibule, and a hall where a platform was arranged with crimson seats facing it and denoting royalty.

Mrs. Clutterbuck's timidity came on her with a rush. She could hardly produce her two tickets. It was Mabel who saved the situation and piloted them in as though she understood exactly where to go. There was a hush of expectancy in the beautifully costumed crowd within.

Everybody looked past one with craning neck. Mabel began to laugh.

"It's exactly as though they were built on a slant," she declared.

In the end they found seats on the stairs beside the wife of an amba.s.sador.

"My dear," said Mrs. Clutterbuck in rather a breathless way to Mabel.

"My dear, just think of it."

Mabel immediately regretted having brought her there.

"But everybody is sitting on the stairs," she said gravely. "It's quite all right. Lady Emily told me she once took a seat in an elevator in somebody's house because there was no room elsewhere. She spent an hour going up and down, not having the courage to get out."

Mrs. Clutterbuck smiled nervously.

"It isn't that, my dear. It's the gown, that one in front of you.

Every inch of the lace is hand-made."

Mrs. Clutterbuck was quite enervated by the discovery.

"Oh," said Mabel in quite a relieved way, "was that it? I began to blame myself for bringing you to the stairs."

"Isn't it fun?" said Elsie. "Much funnier looking at these people than it will be looking at royalty. I never saw so many lorgnettes."

A sudden movement made them rise. A group of princesses with bouquets appeared and took their seats on the red chairs.

"Oh," said Jean with a sigh, as they sat down again. "Think of the poor artists now."