first full rehearsal--every actor, both
amateur and professional, must be present, and the play was to be run
through from the first note of the overture to the final curtain. For
the first time the scholars would hear the orchestral arrangement of the
music score.

And right at the start--at the beginning of the morning rehearsal--the
musical director was balked. Innocent Delight was not present.

"What's the matter with that girl?" demanded the irate professor of
everybody in general and nobody in particular. "Was Thanksgiving too
much for her? I expected some of you boys would perform gastronomic
feats to make the angels tremble. But girls!"

"The Severns went down to Pleasant Cove over Thanksgiving. They haven't
got home yet," announced a neighbor of the missing Trix.

"What? Gone out of town? And after all I said about the importance of
to-day's rehearsals!" exclaimed the director. "This is no time for a
part as important as that of Innocent Delight to be read."

But they had to go on with the play in that halting manner. Trix
Severn's lines were read; but her absence spoiled the action of each
scene in which she should have appeared.

"But goodness knows!" snapped Eva Larry, who, with the rest of the
"penitent sisterhood," as Neale called them, watched the rehearsal,
"Trix will spoil the play anyway. But won't she get it when she comes
this afternoon?"

The play halted on to the bitter end. The amateur performers grew tired;
the director grew fussy. His sarcastic comments toward the end did not
seem to inspire the young folk to a spirited performance of their parts.
They were discouraged.

"We should announce this on the bills as a burlesque of _The Carnation
Countess_," declared Professor Ware, "and as nothing else. Milton people
will laugh us out of town."

The girls and teachers in the audience realized even better than the
performers just how bad it was. The little folk were excused, for they
had all done well, while the director tried his best to whip the others
into some sort of shape for the afternoon session.

"I know very well that Madam Shaw will refuse to sing her part with a
background of such blunderers!" exclaimed Professor Ware, bitterly, at
the last. "Nor will the other professionals be willing to risk their
reputations, and the play itself, in such a performance. Our time has
gone for nothing. And if Innocent Delight does not appear for the
afternoon performance----"

His futile thre