Overture to Death Read Online Free PDF Page B

delighted to lend it.”
    “That’s very kind of you,” said the rector.
    “It’s not a bit kind. I’m being thoroughly selfish. I just long to see you all doing it and I’m secretly hoping you won’t be able to resist it. It’s so difficult to find modern plays that aren’t offensive,” continued Mrs. Ross, with an air of great frankness, “but this really is charming.”
    “But what is the play?” asked Henry, who had been craning his neck in a useless attempt to read the title.
    “
Shop Windows
, by Jacob Hunt.”
    “Good Lord!” ejaculated Dinah. “Of course! I never thought of it. It’s the very thing.”
    “Have you read it?” asked Mrs. Ross, with a friendly glance at her.
    “I saw the London production,” said Dinah. “You’re quite right, it would be grand. But what about the royalties? Hunt charges the earth for amateur rights, and anyway he’d probably refuse them to us.”
    “I was coming to that,” said Mrs. Ross. “If you should decide to do it I’d like to stand the royalties if you’d let me.”
    There was another silence, broken by the rector.
    “Now, that’s very generous indeed,” he said.
    “No, honestly it’s not. I’ve told you I’m longing to see it done.”
    “How many characters are there?” asked the squire suddenly.
    “Let me see, I think there are six.” She opened the play and counted prettily on her fingers.
    “Five, six — no, there seem to be seven! Stupid of me.”
    “Ha!” said Miss Campanula.
    “But I’m sure you could find a seventh. What about the Moorton people?”
    “What about you?” asked Dr. Templett.
    “No, no!” said Mrs. Ross quickly. “I don’t come into the picture. Don’t be silly.”
    “It’s a damn’ good play,” said Henry. “I saw the London show too, Dinah. D’you think we could do it?”
    “I don’t see why not. The situations would carry it through. The three character parts are really the stars.”
    “Which are they?” demanded the squire.
    “The General and the Duchess and her sister,” said Mrs. Ross.
    “They don’t come on till the second act,” continued Dinah, “but from then on they carry the show.”
    “May I have a look at it?” asked the squire.
    Mrs. Ross opened the book and passed it across to him.
    “Do read the opening of the act,” she said, “and then go on to page forty-eight.”
    “May I speak?” demanded Miss Campanula loudly.
    “Please!” said the rector hurriedly. “Please do. Ah — order!”
     
    ii
    Miss Campanula gripped the edge of the table with her large hands and spoke at some length. She said that she didn’t know how everybody else was feeling but that she herself was somewhat bewildered. She was surprised to learn that such eminent authorities as Dinah and Henry and Mrs. Ross considered poor Pen Cuckoo capable of producing a modern play that met with their approval. She thought that perhaps this clever play might be a little too clever for poor Pen Cuckoo and the Young People’s Friendly Circle. She asked the meeting if it did not think it would make a great mistake if it was over-ambitious. “I must confess,” she said, with an angry laugh, “that I had a much simpler plan in mind. I did not propose to fly as high as West End successes and I don’t mind saying I think we would be in a fair way to making fools of ourselves. And that’s that.”
    “But, Miss Campanula,” objected Dinah, “it’s such a mistake to think that because the cast is not very experienced it will be better in a bad play than in a good one.”
    “I’m sorry you think
Simple Susan
a bad play, Dinah,” said Miss Prentice sweetly.
    “Well, I think it’s very dated and I’m afraid I think it’s rather silly,” said Dinah doggedly.
    Miss Prentice gave a silvery laugh in which Miss Campanula joined.
    “I agree with Dinah,” said Henry quickly.
    “Suppose we all read both plays,” suggested the rector.
    “I have read
Shop Windows
,” said Dr. Templett. “I must say I