"...
Georgie and Peppino took turns at the telephone, ringing up all Mrs
Quantock's guests, and informing them of the double pleasure which
awaited them on Saturday. Since Georgie had let out the secret of the
impromptu tableaux to Mrs Quantock there was no reason why the rest of
Riseholme should not learn of this firsthand from The Hurst, instead of
second-hand (with promises not to repeat it) from Mrs Quantock. It
appeared that she had a better nature than Lucia credited her with,
but to expect her not to tell everybody about the tableaux would be
putting virtue to an unfair test.
"So that's all settled," said Georgie, as he returned with the last
acceptance, "and how fortunately it has happened after all. But what a
day it has been. Nothing but telephoning from morning till night. If we
go on like this the company will pay a dividend this year, and return
us some of our own pennies."
Lucia had got a quantity of pearl beads and was stringing them for the
tableau of Mary Queen of Scots.
"Now that everyone knows," she said, "we might allow ourselves a little
more elaboration in our preparations. There is an Elizabethan axe at
the Ambermere Arms which I might borrow for Peppino. Then about the
Brunnhilde tableau. It is dawn, is it not? We might have the stage
quite dark when the curtain goes up, and turn up a lamp very slowly
behind the scene, so that it shines on my face.
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