The noise was tremendous, everybody
was talking, and rough lads at the back were indulging in whistling and
an occasional cat-call.
"The tickets have gone well, at any rate," said Nan Colville, who was
helping in one of the tableaux. "It's something to have the room full,
Dad says! But just listen to them! Aren't they rowdy?"
"If everybody's ready we really _must_ begin!" declared the Vicar,
making a hurried visit behind the scenes. "I don't think they'll wait any
longer."
Furious stamping from the audience endorsed his words, so Mr. Castleton,
who had contemplated yet another alteration, was obliged to be content
and allow the curtain to go up. The scene was 'the first meeting of Dante
and Beatrice,' and was a charming presentment of mediaeval Italy.
Constable, robed in pale green velvet with a Florentine cap on his
picturesque curls, made a very glorified representation of the youthful
poet, while Lilith, in the traditional red dress described in the _Vita
Nuova_, looked ethereal enough to inspire a lifelong devotion and
whole volumes of poems.
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