Page:Willa Cather - The Song of the Lark.djvu/79

 friends coughed. Mr. Upping flushed. The stout woman who always played the injured wife called Tillie's attention to the fact that this would be a fine opportunity for her niece to show what she could do. Her tone was condescending.

Tillie threw up her head and laughed; there was something sharp and wild about Tillie's laugh—when it was not a giggle. "Oh, I guess Thea has n't got time to do any showing off. Her time to show off ain't come yet. I expect she 'll make us all sit up when it does. No use asking her to take the part. She 'd turn her nose up at it. I guess they 'd be glad to get her in the Denver Dramatics, if they could." The company broke up into groups and expressed their amazement. Of course all Swedes were conceited, but they would never have believed that all the conceit of all the Swedes put together would reach such a pitch as this. They confided to each other that Tillie was "just a little off, on the subject of her niece," and agreed that it would be as well not to excite her further. Tillie got a cold reception at rehearsals for a long while afterward, and Thea had a crop of new enemies without even knowing it.