“Clotilde and Augustine fell asleep, and trembling all over I floated down and advanced to the front of the stage. We had no regular footlights, and everyone in the little auditorium could be distinguished from the stage.
“Instead of pronouncing the sentence about the Queen of Dreams, I stood tongue-tied, unable to utter a syllable. Several times my mouth opened, and I tried to speak, but the words would not come. All the time I was anxiously searching the audience for familiar faces. It was only when I saw none, and realised that my mother was not present, that I managed to stutter:
“‘On d-d-dem-m-m-mande la reine d-des rêves? M-m-me voici!’
“The last word I uttered in one breathless syllable; then rushed off the stage to the accompaniment of much amused applause.
“In the wings of the tiny stage I was met by the principal of the school, who, affecting not to notice my embarrassment, complimented me warmly on my ‘success,’ and then told me that my mother and her party had not arrived. This, more than anything else, gave me the necessary courage to go through with my part.
“Even in later years when I was on the regular stage, the presence of my mother in an audience invariably made me so nervous that I could hardly play. She was ever the harshest critic I had!
“The second act proceeded fairly well, since it was chiefly a dance by the fairies, with myself in the centre, wielding a mystic sceptre. All I had to do was wave the sceptre, and the fairies would bow as it was raised and lowered. Finally came the big moment when Clotilde awakens, and says: ‘Pshaw, I was dreaming; there are no such things as fairies!’
“With these words I was supposed to stop and wave my sceptre indignantly, on which all the other fairies disappeared, leaving me alone with Clotilde and the sleeping Augustine. Clotilde advances to me and asks: ‘Who are you?’ To my reply ‘I am the Queen of the Fairies,’ she answers scornfully: ‘You are a fraud, for there are no such things as fairies.’
“When she utters these words I stagger and then, moaning and clasping my hand to my heart, sink slowly to the ground. Clotilde, agonised, asks: ‘What is the matter?’ and I reply: ‘You have killed me, for when a little girl says she doesn’t believe in the fairies, she mortally wounds their Queen.’
“We had got as far as my reply ‘I am the Queen,’ when suddenly I perceived, in the front row of the audience, six beautifully-gowned ladies and two gentlemen, who had not been there before. In trepidation I searched their faces, standing stock-still and not listening to Clotilde’s scornful reply. Yes! There was my mother, and there were my two aunts, as I had feared!