Cara Burt was supposed to be her special friend, and was sent to her now on this occasion to desire her to come at once to Mrs Hazlitt, who was seated in the old Elizabethan garden, and was choosing the different girls who were to take part in the coming tableaux. Cara returned somewhat slowly up the box walk and stood before Mrs Hazlitt with downcast eyes.
“Well,” said that good lady; “and where is Honora? You were some time away, Cara; why has she not come with you?”
“I don’t know whether she will come at all,” said Cara. “She seems very—I don’t mean undecided, but decided against taking the part.”
A swift red passed over Mrs Hazlitt’s cheeks. She was evidently quite unaccustomed to the slightest form of insubordination.
“Did you tell Nora that I desired her to be present?” was her remark.
“Yes—of course I did, Mrs Hazlitt. Oh, may I sit near you, Mary?”
Cara seated herself cosily beside Mary L’Estrange.
“I told her, Mrs Hazlitt, that you wanted her immediately, and where we were all to be found, and that she was to be Helen of Troy.”
“Well—and—?” said Mrs Hazlitt.
“She said she did not want to be Helen of Troy—that Helen of Troy was a wicked woman, and that she would not take the part.”