United States or Gabon ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
She saw in them a tendency. Success was in the air. She did not doubt, she would not doubt, that Crayford's coming meant his eventual acceptance of the opera. The combination of Alston and herself was a strong one. They knew their own minds; they were both enthusiasts; they both had strong wills. Crayford was devoted to his protégé, and he admired her.
She took her feet off the stool she was no odalisque to be pampered with footstools and cushions and she let herself go. Very late in the night Crayford's voice said: "That's the best libretto since Carmen, and I know something about libretti." Charmian had her reward. He added, after a minute: "Your reading, Mrs. Heath, was bully, simply bully!" Charmian was silent. Her eyes were full of tears.
One is a dark beauty in the prime of womanhood the wife of First Lieutenant Crayford, of the Wanderer. The other is a young girl, pale and delicate; dressed simply in white; with no ornament on her head but her own lovely brown hair. This is Miss Clara Burnham an orphan. She is Mrs. Crayford's dearest friend, and she is to stay with Mrs.
A little later, in the afternoon of the same day, they had held a reception of pressmen in their sitting-room at the St. Regis Hotel. Charmian thought of these men now as she waited for Alston's return. They had been introduced by Mr. Cane, Crayford's publicity agent, and had arrived about three o'clock.
Nearer, Clara I want to look my last at you. My sister, Clara! Kiss me, sister, kiss me before I die!" She stooped and kissed his forehead. A faint smile trembled on his lips. It passed away; and stillness possessed the face the stillness of Death. Crayford's voice was heard in the silence. "The loss is ours," he said. "The gain is his.
He wants me to take you home." "What has he been doing all this time?" "No end of things. It's just as I said. Crayford's determined to be first in the field. This move of the Metropolitan has put him on the run, and he'll keep everyone in the theater running till the opera's out. Claude's been with the pressmen behind, and having a hairy-teary heart to heart with Enid Mardon. Come, Mrs.
The captain would conclude, as others had already concluded, that Crayford's mind was giving way under stress of cold and privation. No hope literally, no hope now, but in the numbers of the expedition. Officers and men, they all liked Frank. As long as they could stir hand or foot, they would help him on the way they would see that no harm came to him.
"But they're not rehearsing to-night," said Claude. "No; but Crayford's trying effects." "Mr. Crayford! Is he back from Philadelphia?" exclaimed Charmian. "Been back an hour and hard at work already. He sent me to fetch you. They're all up on the stage trying to get the locust effect." "The locusts! Wait a minute, Alston! I'll change my gown." She hurried out of the room.
A moment more, and Richard Wardour appeared again in the doorway, carrying a man in his arms. He staggered, breathless with the effort that he was making, to the place where Clara stood, held up in Mrs. Crayford's arms. "Saved, Clara!" he cried. "Saved for you!" He released the man, and placed him in Clara's arms. Frank! foot-sore and weary but living saved; saved for her!
Charmian did come down from Mustapha in Crayford's big yellow car. She was in a state of great excitement. "O Alston!" she exclaimed, "where are we going? What a man he is when it comes to business! He simply packed me off. I have never been treated in such a way before. We've got hours and hours to fill up somehow.
Word Of The Day