Magda flashed into animation. "Oh, he would do it splendidly."
"I'm not so sure. He is plain; and he can look dull."
"Oh!" and Magda barely held in words of indignant contradiction. "I should think he would be the very one for you. He once did Father Christmas for a lot of children, and kept them in roars of laughter."
"When?"
"Years ago."
"That is a very different sort of thing."
"But he can be comic, I know, and that is what you want." She watched Patricia's undecided face eagerly. "I've known him ever so long. He and I were great chums, when I was little. And we are now—too. He is such a nice fellow—everybody likes him. Mrs. Miles says so."
"Really!" in an uninterested tone. "Well—it might be worth thinking about, if I can't get any one else. I'd rather have had somebody a trifle better-looking."
Magda again bottled up her wrath. Ned not good-looking indeed! But she knew that if she annoyed Patricia, all hope of his coming would vanish.
Patricia then entered at length into the momentous question of what she herself would wear in the different scenes. It became clear that the part which she had selected was the dominant one of the play; and that all others, except those of the two lovers, would be subordinate and unimportant. She took out the MS., and read passages aloud, explaining by the way what would be required of Magda and Bee, but chiefly occupied with the impression which she herself expected to make. Her dress was to be arranged without regard to cost.