"Yes--Serena Hart," Miss Earle repeated proudly. "She was a Forsyte
girl, too, and of course she _did_ go into the chorus herself, after she
graduated in--let's see--1917, because it was the second year after I'd
come to work here--and Miss Pendleton nearly died, because she was
afraid Forsyte's precious prestige would be lowered, but when Serena
became a star everything was grand, of course, and Forsyte was proud to
claim her.... Anyway, Serena comes to the Easter play every year she
can, if she isn't in a Broadway play herself, of course, and so she saw
Flora acting in the Easter play in 1919, and told her she was awfully
good. She was, too, but not half the actress that little Penny Crain
was, when she had the lead in the play four or five years ago."
Dundee's heart begged him to ask for more details of Penny's triumph,
but his job demanded that he keep the now too-voluble Miss Earle to the
business in hand.
"And Flora Hackett----?" he prompted.
"Well, the next day after the play the Easter vacation began, you know,
and Flora _forged_ a letter from her father, giving her permission to
spend the ten-days' Easter holiday with one of the girls who lived in
Atlanta," Miss Earle continued, with great relish. "Well, sir, right in
the middle of the holidays, here came her father and mother--they were
both alive then--and asked for Flora! They wired the girl in Atlanta,
and Flora wasn't there, and the Hacketts were nearly crazy.
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