"Oh, isn't she sly?" exclaimed Grace Minton.
"Sly! sly isn't the word for it," put in Sarah Brown in her most energetic tones; "she ought to have been named Foxy Graham!"
"Well, there's one thing certain," said Grace Minton, "I shan't have to play; I thank my stars for that!"
"I wonder who will play," said Florence. "Georgie Graham of course; Julia; and you Mab; and I rather guess I shall have to. Well, I don't much care, I don't believe there will be many here, and I think it's time I learned to play before strangers."
"I don't know how I shall ever get on in the world," cried Marion in a despairing tone; "that is about the only thing I never could do."
"And I think it is so strange," remarked Julia Thayer; "for you see so much company at home, and always seem so self-possessed wherever you are, that it does seem queer that you are afraid to play before people."
"I know it. I dare say every one thinks it is all affectation," replied Marion, "for I know you all think I've got assurance enough to do most anything; but it is the honest truth, that I'm frightened half to death whenever I sit down to play to any one; and if I get along well at this affair of Miss Stiefbach's, it will be nothing but my will that carries me through."
"So you mean to play, do you?" asked Georgie Graham, who at this juncture suddenly made her appearance in the room.
"Yes, I mean to play if I'm asked, and I suppose I shall be, because I think I ought. I am determined to overcome this ridiculous nervousness, even if it is at the expense of fifty mortifying failures before I do it; so, girls, look out and prepare yourselves for a public disgrace; for of course there is not one of you who would not take it quite to heart if I should break down."
"Well," replied Sarah Brown in the most energetic tone (Sarah almost always spoke in italics), "I know I for one should feel dreadfully; though of course I can't answer for some of the rest of us;" and she cast a meaning glance at Georgie.