she moaned.

Then William, sinking his voice from the indignant clearness with
which it had addressed the prompter, to a muffled inaudibility,
continued:

"To eat this little maid is my intent."

But there leapt on the stage again the radiant white and blue figure
of the Prince brandishing his wooden sword.

"Avaunt! Begone! You wicked wolf, away!
This gentle maid shall never be your prey."

At this point William should have slunk away. But the vision revealed
by his one available eye-hole of the Prince standing in a threatening
attitude with one arm round Joan filled him with a sudden and
unaccountable annoyance. He advanced slowly and pugnaciously towards
the Prince; and the Prince, who had never before acted with William in
his head (which was hired for one evening only) fled from the stage
with a wild yell of fear. The curtain was lowered hastily.

There was consternation behind the scenes. William, glaring from out
his eye-hole and refusing to remove his head, defended himself in his
best manner.

"Well I di'n't tell him to run away, did I? I di'n't _mean_ him to run
away. I only _looked_ at him. Well, I was goin' to slink in a minit. I
only wanted to look at him. I was _goin'_ to slink."

"Oh, never mind! Get on with the play!" moaned Mrs. de Vere Carter.
"But you've quite destroyed the _atmosphere_, William. You've spoilt
the beautiful story. But hurry up, it's time for the grandmother's
cottage scene now."

Not a word of William's speeches was audible in the next scene, but
his attack on and consumption of the aged grandmother was one of the
most realistic parts of the play, especially considering the fact that
his arms were imprisoned.

"Not so roughly, William!" said the prompter in a sibilant whisper.
"Don't make so much noise. They can't hear a word anyone's saying."

At last William was clothed in the nightgown and nightcap and lying in
the bed ready for little Red Riding-Hood's entrance. The combined
effect of the rug and the head and the thought of Cuthbert had made
him hotter and crosser than he ever remembered having felt before. He
was conscious of a wild and unreasoning indignation against the world
in general. Then Joan entered and began to pipe monotonously:

"Dear grandmamma, I've come with all quickness
To comfort you and sooth your bed of sickness,
Here are some little dainties I have brought
To show you how we cherish you in our thought."

Here