Fishing for Phil by Pansy

"OH, I'll do it! " said Daisy, with a happy little laugh, her eyes shining, "I'm ready to do anything. I'll go down on Madison Square and snowball with him if he says so."

"I told Phil you would do it, and it isn't such a very dreadful thing to do, Daisy Morris. I know girls, plenty of them, who would jump at the chance.

"He wants you to go to Dorrance Hall with him this evening. It will be just lovely! I promised Harry I would go, and I wanted you along all the time."

The smile and the brightness faded together, and the shadow returned. Daisy's voice was low, almost tremulous. Her disappointment was great.

"Blanche dear, I don't go to the theatre, you know."

"I know you don't, and no more do I-at least, not often; but this is a special occasion; everybody goes. They say the characters are perfectly wonderful! It isn't like these miserable travelling troupes generally. Everything is first-class, and they say the principal actress is a lovely woman. Besides, why, Daisy, I'm sure you will not hesitate. Think of Phil's promise. You said you would do anything."

The tone was reproachful, and Daisy felt it.

"I meant anything that is right," she made answer, speaking low.

"Well, of course, I would not ask you to do anything wrong; at least, mamma would not. I think you may trust her, if you cannot me. I tell you this is very different from an ordinary theatre; everybody goes. The same company was here last winter, and you ought to have seen the crowded houses! The very best people in the city. Why, Mrs. Schuyler Van Vorst went three nights in succession, and so did her husband, and he is an officer in our church."

"Blanche, did Mr. Easton go?"

"Mr. Easton! What an idea! Of course not! Public opinion doesn't exactly approve of ministers going to such places, though I am sure I don't see why; and I think it is mean, too. If I were a minister, I would not stand it. I think he has as good a right to go as anybody else."

"So do I," declared Daisy significantly.

But Blanche made haste with her arguments:

"But I don't care, Daisy, whether you ever go to a theatre again in your life-you needn't if you don't want to-if you will only go to-night. Think how much is at stake.

"We have been coaxing Phil for so long, and mother is almost discouraged. You said yourself last Sunday that you had given up all hope of his going to Sabbath-school; and here the matter is in your own hands. You can't think how delighted mamma is! She says she knows Mr. Easton will fascinate him right away."

"How came Phil to make such a condition as that? He has asked me before to go to a theatre, and he knew just what I thought."

"Oh, well; but you see, he feels like everybody else, that such a theatre as this is an exception. He says it is the very fact that you have never been, which makes him want to take you. He wants to see what the effect of the scenery, and the costumes, and everything, would be on one who sees it all for the first time. Then he says you have great talent in the way of personating people in dialogue, and he wants to see how it will affect you to hear it done in its perfection. He said it would be as good as a play to watch your face, and he added some very complimentary things about your eyes and cheeks, which you will not mind since you are his cousin. Oh, Daisy Morris, I know you will go! You would never be so cruel as to disappoint us. Mamma began to plan at once about your dress. She hopes you will wear that wine-colored silk, with plenty of white about it. That dress ought to be trimmed with ermine for such occasions, Daisy. Oh, dear! mamma's calling me."

Daisy was not sorry for this. Her brain was in a whirl. She needed to be alone.

Ermine trimming suggested the handsome face that had been raised to hers in petition to crown her hair with ermine. He knew she looked pretty in red and white. She knew it herself. Her wine-colored dress was lovely.

But she put it firmly from her thoughts. Here was a question to be decided, with which it ought to have nothing to do.