“So you shall! I don’t blame you. If Elise wants to, let her get up something herself.”
“Probably she will. But I want mine here.”
“That’s all right, Patty-girl. Why, there’s plenty of room. We needn’t ask so very many guests,—say a dozen or so the first time, and see how it works out.”
“Oh, we could accommodate twenty or twenty-four, I think. You see we’d use these connecting rooms, and this room would hold about thirty chairs.”
“All right. Now, say we plan the scene. I’ve all that big chest full of Oriental costumes, you know, and we don’t want very much in the way of actual scenery. A couple of divans heaped with pillows, and some of those hookah pipes standing round—then, the people in costume,—there’s your setting,—see? Then, in comes your juggler, also in appropriate costume, and he does his tricks, and the people on the stage admire and applaud, and the people in the audience do likewise.”
“Fine! And afterward, we have a little feast, and a little dance, and maybe sing a song or two for a good-night chorus.”
“That’s the ticket! Now, for the list of those who take part, and a few details of that sort, and our preliminary work is done!”
CHAPTER V
A FIRE-EATER
The Monday night party was in full swing. A stage had been erected and the spectacle that was seen as the curtain rose was of “more than Oriental splendour.”
Heavy draperies, potted palms, strange braziers and lanterns, pillowed divans,—all formed a brilliant and interesting picture of an Eastern interior.