Ivor and Fairfax were again to sleep at the Manor. Dinner was over and all had arrived. Mrs. Royston had excused herself; and so had Pen, busy with her elderly fiancé. The men, in no haste to don their costumes, had gone to the drawing-room away from the large library, where, on a raised dais at the upper end, the acting would take place. Curtains, dividing the dais from the rest of the room, were now drawn back, and a door behind the dais led into a smaller room, which had no other outlet and was lined with book-shelves.
Magda, Merryl, and Bee were present; also three or four other girls with unimportant parts to play. Magda was alone, half-way down the library, in the broad gangway left between rows of chairs which had been placed for spectators. Two or three of the girls had grouped themselves on one side, some distance behind Magda, as she faced the dais. Bee and Merryl, still farther away, were talking together.
A spare woollen curtain had been flung down, just behind where Magda stood, ready for possible use.
She was gazing towards the figure of Patricia, visible within the smaller room; but her mind had wandered elsewhere. Would she see anything of Ned on the morrow, before he returned to town? Did he wish to see more of her?
Patricia, in white and silver, with long fair hair hanging loose, stood before a full length pier-glass in the inner room, looking flushed and excited and very lovely, while the maid vainly tried to arrange the silver-tissue veil to her liking.
"It won't do. It hangs all wrong. How stupid you are, Frost! It will not do at all."
"If I was to loop it up this side a little, Miss—"
"That is better. But you must have made the veil wrong. It hangs quite crookedly. Yes—so. You want safety-pins."
"I'll get some, Miss. I haven't got any more here."
"Why didn't you bring plenty? You knew they would be wanted."