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The duchess's eyes were frequently on the pair, and she smiled rather smugly as she conversed with those closest to her chair.
Chapter 12
Forty people sat down to a very early di
Hortense was the first to be ready in her maid's outfit. She went to help A
"I am more than ever glad that Grandmamma saw fit to give me a small part," Hortense said. "Are you not positively petrified, A
"Don't," A
The peacock-blue gown was soon in place, the pa
"Do you think I should wear some insert here?" she asked Hortense, gazing anxiously into a mirror.
"Definitely not," the girl replied. "You look quite ravishing, A
"Oh, dear," said A
The wig came next. Hortense helped her adjust it snugly over her own curls and then carefully powdered it before inserting the plumes so that they stood proudly above her head. A
All the actors were assembled behind the stage that had been set up at one end of the small ballroom, except Freddie. Peregrine a
"Alex," Claude said with ominous calm, "go upstairs and find that nincompoop without delay. Tell him that I want him here inside the white waistcoat within two minutes, or within five minutes he will be wearing-it inside his throat."
Merrick gri
The ballroom was filling up with chattering, gorgeously clad ladies and gentlemen. A
Alexander had left the room, having gone in search of poor Freddie. But A
"Aunt Jemima and Uncle Roderick have just made a grand entrance," Claude a
And they all became aware of the hush that had begun to descend beyond the curtains that divided the stage from the rest of the small ballroom. Merrick reentered the room with Freddie in tow almost at the same moment. Freddie was wearing a white waistcoat.
"Oh, you do look distinguished, Freddie," A
Freddie beamed and both Merrick and Jack gri
Freddie had been quite right. The performance proceeded quite flawlessly if one ignored the fact that Freddie, Hortense, and Constance, who were supposed to be caught in a fit of the giggles when Mr. Hardcastle mentioned one of his old jokes, really did become hysterical and laughed for much longer than the script called for. Freddie said afterward with some indignation that he could have remained perfectly serious if the audience had not laughed so loudly and destroyed his control.
The members of the audience had come out for an unusually festive evening. Many of them had attended a lavish di
But it was Peregrine who stole the show. Everyone took one curtain call at the end. Merrick and A
It made a fitting ending to what had really been a very jolly middle part of the evening. Claude declared after the curtain had been closed for the final time and the stage was suddenly strewn with wigs and fans and buckled shoes that had proved too tight for the wearers, that the duchess had actually had tears in her eyes at the end of it all and that even the duke had looked suspiciously bright-eyed.