By walking along the court, the girls were on a level with the inner windows of the hall. The outside shutters stood wide open to admit light, and a few children were peering curiously through the dusty panes. Further away was a narrow door sacred to the use of actors or employes of the hall.
Laura observed that this door was closed when she and Ivy first appeared upon the scene; but after a time, leaving Ivy at a good position at the window with her inquisitive eyes pressed against the glass, Laura strayed back and found the door open.
She hastened to the threshold and took a long, eager look into the dingy hall, from the curious little box-like office at the "grand entrance," as the double wooden door was styled, past the rows of rough benches to the stage at the upper end of the hall, where some carpenters and other employes were busy making arrangements for the evening's performance.
Neither the dust nor the dinginess was seen by Laura. A subtle fascination held her in thrall—she saw everything through a golden light.
She, who had been stage manager so often under the disadvantages of improvised platforms and home-made curtains, could appreciate a real hall and a real stage with a real curtain, were they ever so crude.
She was on the point of returning to fetch Ivy to view the magic scene and share her joy, when one of the men, who appeared to be a personage of authority, left the stage where he had been directing the movements of everybody, and proceeded down the aisle.
His coat brushed against a bench and sustained a smudge of dust which he viewed with an exclamation of disgust.
Returning to the dressing-room, he hunted round and found a feather-duster which he carried away in triumph.
He came down the aisle for the second time, wielding the brush with vigor, making frantic dabs at the benches on each side, and raising great clouds of dust that rose and enveloped him, and settled back again on the furniture.
Laura was so interested in his movements that she forgot her manners, and stood watching his ineffectual efforts at cleaning up, with a smile of amusement mingled with compassion.