Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v109.djvu/650

598 to its dregs, and dies in the last act. Maudie said in that case she would be Romeo, and rewrite all his part and make it stronger. We were both so delighted we stopped and hugged each other, and did not observe, alas! that dark clouds were lowering on the brows of our dear friends Mabel Blossom and Mabel Muriel Murphy. Mabel Muriel spoke right up and told us she wanted to play a part like Cleopatra, and die with an asp on her breast, and she said she knew she could write a lovely part carrying out all her own ideas. She said she would make Cleopatra love Julius Cæsar with a love that knew no death, and spurn Mark Antony coldly,—because she, Mabel Muriel, had never liked Mark Antony very much, anyhow. Almost before she got through, and ere our tongues could find fitting words to point out the poor child's errors, Mabel Blossom struck in and said that for her part she was going to be like Laura in The Pit, for she wanted her character to be right up to date and in Chicago.

Then there was a heavy silence, as real writers say; for though Maudie's mind and mine are so mature and quick, we could not grasp at once just how all these different persons could be put into the same play and made "convincing," as Sister Edna is always saying. I remarked thoughtfully that I didn't see how it could be done, because there wouldn't be enough men in the play; and Mabel answered very quickly that it didn't matter, for Laura in The Pit never saw anything of her husband, anyway, so he needn't be on the stage. She would just sit around, she said, and wait for him and mourn. I couldn't see why Mabel wanted to play such a silly part as Laura, so I asked her; and she confessed that it was because she had a strange foreboding that when she was married her husband wouldn't come home much, either, and she wanted to see how it would feel! She said she would probably live in Chicago, and Chicago men didn't go home very often. Maudie Joyce sniffed at that, so you can imagine how disgusted she was, for she doesn't usually do such things. She is a very queenly girl. Mabel didn't look hurt at all. She went on to say that if she played Laura, Kittie James could play the husband or the Wheat Pit—the place where Laura's husband spent all his time,—and then she could have her name on the programme and wouldn't have to come on the stage at all. Mabel said it would be a lovely part for Kitty, and please her very much. Maudie and I did not think these ideas were very good, so we just sat still and looked tired and resigned.

Finally I asked Mabel Muriel if she wouldn't give up Cleopatra and the asp and be something modern. Then perhaps she and Mabel could be doing The Pit on one side of the stage while Maudie and I did Romeo and Juliet on the other. But Mabel Muriel said no; and then she asked why she couldn't do Cleopatra in the middle of the stage while we and Mabel had the two ends. Maudie said that would be like three rings at a circus. Then we all giggled and felt a little better, and "the nervous strain of the moment perceptibly relaxed," as the newspapers say.

After we stopped laughing Mabel Muriel remarked very seriously that she didn't see why it shouldn't be something like that, after all. We could each have our scenes, but not all at once, of course. The first act could be Romeo and Juliet, and the second act Laura in The Pit, and the third act the Death of Cleopatra. And she said we could lay the whole thing in the present time and write sentences that would connect the acts and make them seem like one plot. She said she could have Cleopatra kill herself because she could not bear to see the happiness of Romeo and Juliet, and of Laura and her husband after he began to stay home more. She added that she didn't care why Cleopatra killed herself, so long as she did it and used the asp. Mabel Muriel's mind just lingered and lingered on that asp. It seemed to have some strange, terrible fascination for her. She said she was perfectly sure her father would buy her a beautiful costume to wear as Cleopatra, with lots of jewelled girdles—because, of course, they were the most important things. Then Mabel Blossom said that the plan would suit her, so Maudie and I had to agree, but we did not like it. We thought it did not seem very logical.

Maudie said each girl would have to