She had succeeded in
stimulating Olivia to a real determination to be worthy of her teacher's
expressed belief in her, even to the mastering of her girlish tendency
to let her voice revert to a high-keyed feminine quality just when it
needed to be deepest and most stern.
The audience, as the play began, was in the customary benevolent mood of
audiences beholding amateur productions, ready to see good if possible,
anxious to show favour to all the young actors and to praise without
discrimination, aware of the proximity of proud fathers and mothers. But
this audience soon found itself genuinely interested and amused, and
with the first advent of the enchanting _Shrew_ herself became absorbed
in her personality and her fortunes quite as it might have been in those
of any talented actress of reputation.
To Ruth, sitting wide eyed and hot cheeked, her sister seemed the most
spirited and bewitching _Katherine_ ever played. Her shrewishness was
that of the wilful madcap girl who has never been crossed rather than
that of the inherently ill-tempered woman, and her every word and
gesture, her every expression of face and tone of voice, were worth
noting and watching.
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