“Yes, certainly.”
“Oh, how frightened I shall be!” she said.
She had been chosen for the angel, I suppose, because she was as pale and sweet as a moonbeam. She had a soft, timid voice, and sometimes we used to make her cry, as she was so pretty then. The tears used to flow limpid and pearl-like from her gray, questioning eyes.
She began at once to learn her part, and I was like a shepherd’s dog going from one to another among the chosen ones. I had really nothing to do with it, but I wanted to be “in it.” The Mother Superior passed by, and as we all courtesied to her she patted my cheek.
“We thought of you, little girl,” she said, “but you are so timid when you are asked anything.”
“Oh, that’s when it is history or arithmetic!” I said. “This is not the same thing, and I should not have been afraid.”
She smiled distrustfully and moved on.
There were rehearsals during the next week. I asked to be allowed to take the part of the monster, as I wanted to have some rôle in the play, at any cost. It was decided, though, that César, the convent dog, should be the fish monster.
A competition was opened for the fish costume. I went to an endless amount of trouble, cutting out scales from cardboard that I had painted, and sewing them together afterward. I made some enormous gills, which were to be glued on to César. My costume was not chosen; it was passed over for that of a stupid, big girl, whose name I cannot remember. She had made a huge tail of kid and a mask with big eyes and gills, but there were no scales, and we should have to see César’s shaggy coat. I nevertheless turned my attention to Louise Buguet’s costume, and worked at it with two of the lay Sisters, Sister Ste. Cécile and Sister Ste. Jeanne, who had charge of the linen room.
At the rehearsals not a word could be extorted from the Angel Raphael. She stood there stupefied, on the little platform, tears dimming her beautiful eyes. She brought the whole play to a standstill, and kept appealing to me in a weeping voice. I prompted her, and getting up, rushed to her, kissed her, and whispered her whole speech to her. I was beginning to be “in it” myself, at last.