But to get a thing up properly was what Mrs. Graham-Shute never troubled to do. To get it up somehow was always the extreme limit of her ambition. She was already perfectly satisfied, and she proceeded at once to settle other details as summarily as the first.
“We will do fairy tales, I think,” she said. “The dresses will be cheap and easily made. We can have the ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ with Lilith as Beauty, and ‘Robinson Crusoe’ and ‘Red Riding Hood,’ and—and any of those things, don’t you know? With all my cousin’s curiosities and things we can make a lovely palace for the ‘Sleeping Beauty.’”
Mrs. Abercarne had raised her double eye-glass, and was looking horror-struck at this suggested desecration.
Chris, with a frightened glance at her mother, hastened to say:
“But, then, the performers? Who would you have for the tableaux?”
“Oh, well, there must be some family in the neighbourhood quite used to such things. There always is, you know. I must ask my cousin John about that. I suppose you wouldn’t know of anybody?”
“Well, there are the Brownes. Mr. Browne is a brewer, the head of the firm of Browne & Browne. It’s a large family, and they can act, I believe.”
“Then they will do beautifully,” said Mrs. Graham-Shute, complacently. “We will have them just to fill up. They can play the pages and court ladies, and one of them can be the Wolf in ‘Red Hiding Hood;’ and another can black himself for Man Friday. Of course, Lilith, and Rose, and Donald will take the principal parts, for they want a little acting, you know. People think it’s only just to stand still, but really you have to be quite clever to do it really well. And now there’s nothing left to decide but what’s it to be for. Of course, it must be in aid of something. I must go and see the vicar’s wife—if he has a wife—to-morrow, and settle that.”
“You don’t mean to charge to see them, do you?” exclaimed Chris, in astonishment. “Done in such a hurry, would they be worth it?”
“Oh, people don’t mind when it’s for a charity,” answered the lady, breezily. “Besides, I’m sure they’ll be very good. You will spare no pains in getting the dresses ready, and all the little etceteras, will you? I don’t mind organizing these things a bit, but I must have a willing lieutenant to carry out the petty details,” she ended, with a smile.