Chapter Nineteen.
Pat’s Taunt.
When the gong sounded that night two white-robed figures stole out of Mademoiselle’s room, and crept quietly along the gallery. Pat was arrayed as a knight of old, wearing a pair of Esmeralda’s old white stockings, surmounted by loose linen trunks, the rest of the sheet being ingeniously swathed round his body, and kept in place by such an elaborate cris-crossing of tape as gave the effect of a slashed doublet. A thickly pleated cloak, (made out of sheet number two), hung over his shoulders, and the pillow-case was drawn into a cap, which was placed jauntily on the side of his head. As handsome a young knight as one could wish to see was Mr Patrick O’Shaughnessy, and the manner in which he held Mademoiselle’s hand, and led her down the great staircase, evoked thunders of applause from the watchers beneath.
Mademoiselle herself looked worthy of her squire, for her dark, animated face stood the test of the unrelieved whiteness so successfully, that she was all ablush with delight at the discovery that she was not an old woman after all, but on occasion could still look as girlish as she felt. She was attired as a Normandy peasant, with turned-back skirt and loose white bodice; but the feature of the costume was undoubtedly the cap, which looked so extraordinarily like the real article that the sceptical refused to believe in its pillow-case origin, until the buttonholes were exhibited in evidence.
“It is wonderful—wonderful! But how have you made it so stiff and crinkly?” the Major inquired curiously; and Mademoiselle laughed in gleeful triumph.
“I ’ave curled it with the curling tongs—not perhaps curl, but what the washerwoman would say—‘goffer,’ and for the rest, can you not see the wire? It is a piece I have taken upstairs after the decorations, and it is stitched in to keep the folds in place; but I must keep my ’ead still, for it is not too strong. You are very fine too, sir. You are, I suppose, some old patrician?”
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!” declaimed the Major, throwing his arms about with impassioned gestures. His white toga fell in graceful folds round his tall figure; his arms were bared to the elbows; he wore a twisted turban, which was impressive, if not exactly appropriate; and it was really an imposing spectacle to behold him strutting up and down the hall, with a great display of sandalled feet, of which he was evidently immensely proud.
Bridgie sat demurely on a high-backed chair, a sweet-faced nun, with her golden hair hidden from sight, and her dark-lashed eyes looking lovelier than ever when contrasted with the white bands across her forehead. She had been so busy dressing others that she had had no time to plan anything more elaborate for herself; but if she had worked for days she could not have hit on a costume more becoming to her style of beauty. It was scarcely in character, however, to shriek aloud with laughter, as she did a moment later, as Mark Antony was suddenly arrested on his march by an apparition which leapt forward from behind a screen, and advanced upon him to an accompaniment of unearthly groanings.
Miles as a ghost was certainly an eerie figure; for by means of a stick strapped to his back the sheet was raised to an abnormal altitude, while a couple of tennis rackets held in either hand made extended wings with which to swoop about, and raise warning signals to the onlookers. He chased Mark Antony until that classic gentleman threatened fight with a poker; when he amused himself by groaning vigorously at Pixie, who had been attired as a “Lady in Waiting”—not, it must be confessed, with any striking success; and who was somewhat ruffled in her temper through constant trippings over her train.
“Ye stupid thing!” she cried crossly. “Be over hooting at me! If you are a bogie, you can go and haunt by yourself, and not molest your betters! It’s the worst dress of the lot. Nothing but three sticks and the sheets in knots. You had better rest yourself a bit, and groan while we are at dinner, for your head is covered up that tight that you’ll never be able to eat!”