Then there was the account of how it had been at first intended that Oberon should be represented by little Sir Adrian, with his Bexley cousin, Pearl Underwood, for his Titania; but though she was fairy enough for anything, he turned out so stolid, and uttered ’Well met by moonlight, proud Titania,’ the only lines he ever learnt, exactly like a lesson, besides crying whenever asked to study his part, that the attempt had to be given up, and the fairy sovereigns had to be of large size, Mr. Grinstead pronouncing that probably this was intended by Shakespeare, as Titania was a name of Diana, and he combined Grecian nymphs with English fairies.  So Gerald Underwood had to combine the part of Peter Quince (including Thisbe) with that of Oberon, and the queen was offered to Gillian.

‘But I had learnt Hermia,’ she said, ’and I saw it was politeness, so I wouldn’t, and Anna Vanderkist is ever so much prettier, besides being used to acting with Gerald.  She did look perfectly lovely, asleep on the moss in the scene Mrs. Grinstead painted and devised for her!  There was—–­’

’Oh! not only the prettiness, I don’t care for that.  One gets enough of the artistic, but the fun—–­the dear fun.’

‘There was fun enough, I am sure,’ said Gillian.  ’Puck was Felix—–­ Pearl’s brother, you know—–­eleven years old, so clever, and an awful imp—–­and he was Moon besides; but the worst of it was that his dog—–­ it was a funny rough terrier at the Vicarage—–­was so furious at the lion, when Adrian was roaring under the skin, that nobody could hear, and Adrian got frightened, as well he might, and crept out from under it, screaming, and there fell the lion, collapsing flat in the middle of the place.  Even Theseus—–­Major Harewood, you know, who had tried to be as grave as a judge, and so polite to the actors—–­could not stand that interpolation, as he called it, of “the man in the moon—–­ not to say the dog,” came down too soon—–­Why, Fly—–­’

For Fly was in such a paroxysm of laughter as to end in a violent fit of coughing, and to bring Lady Rotherwood in, vexed and anxious.

‘Oh, mother! it was only—–­it was only the lion’s skin—–­’ and off went Fly, laughing and coughing again.

’I was telling her about the acting or Midsummer Night’s Dream at Vale Leston,’ explained Gillian.

‘I should not have thought that a suitable subject for the day,’ said the Marchioness gravely, and Fly’s endeavour to say it was her fault for asking about it was silenced by choking; and Gillian found herself courteously dismissed in polite disgrace, and, as she felt, not entirely without justice.

It was a great disappointment that Aunt Jane did not think it well to take any of the young people to their home with her.  As she said, she did not believe that they would catch anything; but it was better to be on the safe side, and she fully expected that they would spend most of the day with Mysie and Fly.