“Oh, did he?” said Eustacia more gently.  “What do you want, Charley?”

“Please will your grandfather lend us his fuel-house to try over our parts in, tonight at seven o’clock?”

“What, are you one of the Egdon mummers for this year?”

“Yes, miss.  The cap’n used to let the old mummers practise here.”

“I know it.  Yes, you may use the fuel-house if you like,” said Eustacia languidly.

The choice of Captain Vye’s fuel-house as the scene of rehearsal was dictated by the fact that his dwelling was nearly in the centre of the heath.  The fuel-house was as roomy as a barn, and was a most desirable place for such a purpose.  The lads who formed the company of players lived at different scattered points around, and by meeting in this spot the distances to be traversed by all the comers would be about equally proportioned.

For mummers and mumming Eustacia had the greatest contempt.  The mummers themselves were not afflicted with any such feeling for their art, though at the same time they were not enthusiastic.  A traditional pastime is to be distinguished from a mere revival in no more striking feature than in this, that while in the revival all is excitement and fervour, the survival is carried on with a stolidity and absence of stir which sets one wondering why a thing that is done so perfunctorily should be kept up at all.  Like Balaam and other unwilling prophets, the agents seem moved by an inner compulsion to say and do their allotted parts whether they will or no.  This unweeting manner of performance is the true ring by which, in this refurbishing age, a fossilized survival may be known from a spurious reproduction.

The piece was the well-known play of “Saint George,” and all who were behind the scenes assisted in the preparations, including the women of each household.  Without the cooperation of sisters and sweethearts the dresses were likely to be a failure; but on the other hand, this class of assistance was not without its drawbacks.  The girls could never be brought to respect tradition in designing and decorating the armour; they insisted on attaching loops and bows of silk and velvet in any situation pleasing to their taste.  Gorget, gusset, basinet, cuirass, gauntlet, sleeve, all alike in the view of these feminine eyes were practicable spaces whereon to sew scraps of fluttering colour.

It might be that Joe, who fought on the side of Christendom, had a sweetheart, and that Jim, who fought on the side of the Moslem, had one likewise.  During the making of the costumes it would come to the knowledge of Joe’s sweetheart that Jim’s was putting brilliant silk scallops at the bottom of her lover’s surcoat, in addition to the ribbons of the visor, the bars of which, being invariably formed of coloured strips about half an inch wide hanging before the face, were mostly of that material.  Joe’s sweetheart straightway placed brilliant silk on the scallops of the hem in question, and, going a little further, added ribbon tufts to the shoulder pieces.  Jim’s, not to be outdone, would affix bows and rosettes everywhere.