“It looks as though Nora had made an impression, doesn’t it!” whispered Jessica to Grace, who was about to reply when Mr. Southard motioned to her.  Grace, who knew the scene by heart, went fearlessly forward, and read the lines with splendid emphasis.  Marian and Eva Allen followed her, and acquitted themselves with credit.  Then Eleanor’s turn came.  Handing her coat, which she had taken off and carried upon her arm, to Edna Wright, she walked proudly over, then, without a trace of self-consciousness, began the reading of the designated lines.  Her voice sounded unusually clear and sweet, yet lacked something of the power of expression displayed by Grace in her rendering of the same scene.  When she had finished she handed the book back with an air of studied indifference she was far from feeling.  She had decided in her own mind that Rosalind was the part best suited to her, and felt that the honor now lay between herself and Grace.  No other girls, with the exception of Nora, had been allowed to read as much of any scene as they two had been requested to read.

But Eleanor had reckoned without her host, for there was one girl who had not as yet come to the front.  The girl was Anne Pierson, who in some mysterious manner had been all but overlooked, until Miss Tebbs spied her standing between Grace and Nora.

“Can you spare us a moment more, Mr. Southard?” said Miss Tebbs to the actor, who was preparing to leave.  “You have almost missed hearing one of my best girls.  Come here, Anne, and prove the truth of my words.”

Grace drew a long breath of relief.  She had eagerly awaited Anne’s turn and was about to call Miss Tebbs’s attention to Anne, just as that teacher had observed her.

As most of the girls present had heard Anne recite, there was a great craning of necks and a faint murmur of expectancy as she took her place.  They expected her to live up to her reputation and she had scarcely delivered the opening line before they realized that she would not disappoint them.

Her musical voice vibrated with expression and the mock-serious bantering tones in which she delivered Rosalind’s witty speeches caused Mr. Southard to smile and nod approvingly as she gave full value to the immortal lines.  Her change of voice from Rosalind to Orlando was wholly delightful, and so charmingly did she depict both characters that when she ended with Orlando’s exit she received a little ovation from the listening girls, in which Mr. Southard and Miss Tebbs joined.

“She’s won!  She’s won!  I’m so glad,” Grace said softly to Nora and Jessica.  “I wanted her to play Rosalind, and I knew she could do it.  Look, girls!  Mr. Southard is shaking hands with her.”

True enough, Anne was shyly shaking hands with the great actor, who was congratulating her warmly upon her recent effort.

“I have never before heard an amateur read those lines as well as you have to-day, Miss Pierson,” he said.  “I am sure Rosalind will be safe with you, for few professional women could have done better.  If I am anywhere near here when your play is enacted, I shall make it a point to come and see it.”