'All right, countess. I'd like to see you stumped once in my life.
Shall we have the canvases brought for stage carpets?'

'We say no,' cried Rosalind, firmly. 'We shall be a thousand times
more awkward stumbling over stiff billows of carpet. Let's sweep the
ground as clean and smooth as possible, and let it go for all the
scenes.'

'Yes, we shall then be well GROUNDED in our parts,' remarked Phil,
hiding his head behind a bunch of candles.

'Take care, young man,' laughed Polly, 'or you may be "run to earth"
instead.'

'Or be requested by the audience to get up and dust,' cried the
irrepressible Jack, whose wit was very apt to be of a slangy
character. 'Now let us settle the interior, or I shall go mad.'

'Bell and I have it all settled,' said Geoffrey, promptly. 'The
background is to be made of three sheets hung over a line, and the
two sides will be formed of canvas carpets; the walls will have
Japanese fans, parasols, and--'

'Jupiter!' exclaimed Jack, who, as knight of the brush, felt
compelled to be artistic. 'Imagine a ducal palace, in the year so
many hundred and something, decorated with Japanese bric-a-brac! I
blush for you.'

'Now, Jack, we might as well drop the whole play as begin to think of