The change was
made; but Preston would not suffer Daisy to be one of the
attendants. He left her out of the picture altogether, and put
Jane Linwood in Nora's vacated place. Daisy was content; and
now the practising and the arrangements went on prospering.
There was a good deal of preparation to be made, besides what
the mantua-maker could do. Mr. Stilton was called into the
library for a great consultation; and then he went to work.
The library was the place chosen for the tableaux; the
spectators to be gathered into the drawing-room, and the
pictures displayed just within the wide door of communication
between the two rooms. On the library side of this door Mr.
Stilton laid down a platform, slightly raised and covered with
green baize cloth, and behind the platform a frame-work was
raised and hung with green baize to serve as a proper
background for the pictures. A flower-stand was brought in
from the greenhouse and placed at one side, out of sight from
the drawing-room; for the purpose, as Preston informed Daisy,
of holding the lights. All these details were under his
management, and he managed, Daisy thought, very ably indeed.
Meantime the dresses were got ready. Fortitude's helmet was
constructed of pasteboard and gilt paper; and Nora said it
looked just as if it were solid gold.
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