“Nonsense!  I’ll stick pins into you—­metaphorically speaking,” declared Roberta.  “I’ll keep you up to it.  Now go straight to bed—­no sitting up to talk it over with Ethel—­poor child!  Good-night, dear, and don’t you dare be afraid of me!”

“Are you going to play the boots, after all?” Louis queried as he and Roberta started toward home, walking at a rapid pace, as usual after rehearsals.

“I wish I were, if I must play some part.  No, it’s Katherine.  Ethel Revell has come down with tonsilitis, just at the last minute.  It was to be expected, of course—­somebody always does it.  But I did hope it wouldn’t be one of the principals.  Of course there’s nobody who could possibly get up the part overnight except the coach, so I’m in for it.  And the worst of it is that unless I’m very careful I shall over-Katherine my Petruchio!  If Olivia will only keep her voice resonant!  She can stride and gesture pretty well now, but highly dramatic moments always cause her to raise her key—­and then the boots only serve to make the effect grotesque.”

“Never mind; unconscious humour is always interesting to the audience.  And we shall all be there to see your Katherine.  I had thought of cutting the performance for a rather important address, but nothing would induce me to miss my sister as the Shrew.”

Roberta laughed.  “Nobody will question my fitness for the part, I fear.  Well, if I teach expression, in a girls’ school, I must take the consequences, and be willing to express anything that comes along.”

If Roberta had expected any sympathy from her family in the exigency of the hour, she was disappointed.  Instead of condoling with her, the breakfast-table hearers of the news, next morning, were able only to congratulate themselves upon the augmented interest the school play would now have for Roberta’s friends, confident that the presence of one clever actress of maturer powers would compensate for much amateurishness in the others.  Ruth, young devotee of her sister, was delighted beyond measure with the prospect, and joyfully spent the day taking necessary stitches in the apparel Roberta was to wear, considerable alteration being necessary to adapt the garments intended for the slim and girlish Katherine of Ethel Revell’s proportions to the more perfectly rounded lines of her teacher.

Late in the afternoon, something was needed to complete Roberta’s preparations which could be procured only in a downtown shop, and Ruth volunteered to order the brougham—­now on runners—­and go down for it.  She left the house alone, but she did not complete her journey alone, for halfway down the two-mile boulevard she passed a figure she knew, and turned to bestow a girlish bow and smile.

Richard Kendrick not only took off his hat but waved it with a gesture of entreaty, as he quickened his steps, and Ruth, much excited by the encounter, bade Thomas stop the horses.