Coppertop, a slim young reed in his bright green knitted jersey, was clinging with one hand to a wooden bar attached to the wall which served Magda for the “bar practice” which constitutes part of every dancer’s daily work, while Magda, holding his other hand in hers, essayed to instruct him in the principle of “turning out”—that flexible turning of the knees towards the side which gives so much facility of movement.
“Point your toes sideways—so,” directed Magda. “This one towards me—like that.” She stooped and placed his foot in position. “Now, kick out! Try to kick me!”
Coppertop tried—and succeeded, greeting his accomplishment with shrieks of delight.
It was just at this moment that Davilof appeared on the scene, pausing abruptly in the doorway as he caught sight of Magda’s laughing face bent above the fiery red head. There was something very charming in her expression of eager, light-hearted abandonment to the fun of the moment.
At the sound of the opening door Coppertop wriggled out of her grasp like an eel, twisting his lithe young body round to see who the new arrival might be. His face fell woefully as he caught sight of Davilof.
“Oh, you can’t never have come already to play for the Fairy Lady!” he exclaimed in accents of dire disappointment.
“Fairy Lady” was the name he had bestowed upon Magda when, very early in their acquaintance, she had performed for his sole and particular benefit a maturer edition of the dance she had evolved as a child—the dance with which she had so much astonished Lady Arabella. Nowadays it figured prominently on her programmes as “The Hamadryad,” and was enormously popular.
“It’s not never three o’clock!” wailed Coppertop disconsolately, as Davilof dangled his watch in front of him.
“I think it is, small son,” interpolated Gillian, gathering together her sewing materials. “Come along. We must leave the Fairy Lady to practise now, because she’s got to dance to half the people in London to-morrow.”
“Must I really go?” appealed Coppertop, beseeching Magda with a pair of melting green eyes.