As a matter of fact very little in the way of inducement was needed. The lines:
I feel sure he must be wet,
For they haven’t found him yet.
were given with enormous gusto.
The change which came over the audience was quite remarkable. In the reaction from the boredom of the first act of Sir Toby’s comedy, “the house” began to bubble with enthusiasm. The broad human appeal of Mr. Jupp was irresistible. “Down Went Maginty” was so rapturously received that he had no compunction about following with “Oh, Dem Golden Slippers,” which went equally well and “I Fear No Foe in Swan Pyjamas.” In fact, “the old Pony Moore touch” was simply invaluable. Even the stern old dowagers whose brothers “had been at Eton with the dear Duke” were enchanted. For a full three-quarters of an hour Mr. Jupp was kept hard at it with songs and patter, jokes and conjuring tricks. No man could have worked more heroically in the cause of charity. The situation was saved.
XXX
While Mr. Jupp so nobly held the breach, a doctor was summoned from the audience to attend Lady Elfreda. On his advice she was sent home at once to bed in the care of her maid. She was so overwrought that the doctor, fearing serious consequences, followed her to Clavering Park, stopping on the way at a chemist’s in the town to procure a bromide.
Lord Duckingfield, a much embarrassed witness of the play’s fiasco, had already come to the conclusion even before the ignominious descent of the curtain at the end of Act I, that Lady Elfreda had been driven too hard by the strain of perpetual rehearsal and that she had been induced to undertake a rôle beyond her powers. He had now an anxious consultation with Mrs. Minever as to what ought to be done. Both were so genuinely concerned that it was decided to telegraph to Lady Elfreda’s father and ask him to come at once to Clavering Park.
He was usually to be found in London at the Old Buck House Club. There a telegram was sent after a judicious formula had been decided upon so as not to alarm the paternal feelings of Lord Carabbas unduly.
The yellow chrysanthemum lady, who was really the soul of kindness, did not wait for the end of the performance, but accompanied by Lord Duckingfield she took a taxi as far as the post-office and personally dispatched the fateful telegram. Then, deeply anxious for Lady Elfreda’s welfare, they went on together to Clavering Park.