“Cora has a chance at the lead.” Again Helen nodded.
“But,” went on Janet, “you are going to win the lead.”
“Oh, do you really think so?” There was a tinge of desperation in Helen’s voice.
“I know you are.” Janet spoke with a definiteness that she didn’t quite feel, for Cora was a splendid little actress. But Helen needed some real encouragement and Janet knew that if Helen felt confident from the start half of the battle was won.
The morning passed in a whirl of routine classes, but Janet found time to study her tryout sheets for several minutes.
“The Chinese Image” was ideally suited for a senior play, with an excellent mystery story to carry the action. A whole lot of dramatic ability was unnecessary for the rapid tempo of the story would carry along the interest of the audience.
The synopsis Miss Williams had prepared was brief and Janet read it twice.
“The Chinese Image” centered about a strange little figure which had been brought back from China in 1851 by Ebenezer Naughton, then captain of one of the clipper ships which had sailed out of Salem for far-away ports in the Orient. The strange, squat little figure had remained in the Naughton family ever since for Captain Ebenezer, in his will, had stipulated that it must never be given away or sold.
“When grave troubles befall my family, turn to ‘The Chinese Image,’” he had written, “and therein you will find an answer.”
But the Naughtons had prospered and the will had been almost forgotten until the family came upon hard times and its fortune dwindled. Two grandsons of Captain Ebenezer, now heads of their own families, quarreled bitterly and in the ensuing family feud the image became involved. It finally fell to the lot of Abbie Naughton, the rôle played by Janet, to solve the mystery of the image, which she did in as thorough a manner as might have been expected of the light-headed Abbie.