M432
“A STORY WE BRING YOU FROM FAËRY LAND.”
First came Teddy Bevers, beautiful to behold in his pink satin tunic trimmed with swansdown, lace ruffles, pink silk stockings, and buckled shoes. His dark curls bobbed merrily all over his little head, as, holding his pink hat with its white plume behind him, he bowed low to another small figure tripping after him. Lilla Turner was a tiny, slender maiden, just the opposite of plump Betty, her sister and slave; she wore a short petticoat of quilted white satin, and a Watteau bodice and panier of white and gold brocade. Lilla returned Teddy’s bow with a sweeping curtsey, then took his offered hand, and the little pair paced solemnly to the front and made a profound salute to the audience. Both sang prettily; and Miss Carlyon’s careful teaching had given them a clear enunciation, which made the words of their prologue audible throughout the room:
“A story we bring you from Faëry Land,
A story of gallant, and maiden, and sprite;
And we ask you to lend us a favouring hand,
While we tell it, and sing it, and act it to-night.
List, list to our story of maiden and fay,
Of prince, knight, and peasant; oh, listen, we pray!”
Teddy and Lilla continued, through three verses, to entreat the indulgence of an audience already disposed to be more than kind; then the salutes were sedately repeated, and the little couple vanished amid enraptured applause. The beauty and grace of the small actors had warmed the hearts of the workaday folk to whom they sang, and the Woodend villagers demanded an encore with all their hands and tongues.