SHOUTS AND MURMURS
202
Feter waves good-by from his house in the swaying tree-tops,
"A
it is difficult
weigh the pathos of
to
Kiss for Cinderella."
It
seems to be com-
pounded of one part laughter and shed
Its recipe is secret,
tears.
unmistakable.
If
three parts un-
but
its
source
you stop to think about
cannot doubt for a
moment
is
you Miss
it,
that the little
Thing who pretends she is Cinderella is our old Nursemaid Extraordinary
friend lre7ie^ sometime to
David A
,
in the purlieus of Kensington
Gardens. Cinderella
Barrie's
is
a
little
drudge whose
name is Jane and who is vaguely and scornfully set down on the program as Miss Thing. She pretends she
is
Cinderella so that she
may
transform
her bleak existence by the brave day-dreams that
—
luckily for her
itself.
—
are
more
real to her
than
life
She comes out of the slums of London
—where, with but— honor
not far from Drury Lane, you wager
her watering-can, she has carefully brought her-
Her speech is cockney, in Thrums there is a Scotch forebear somewhere,
self up.
of
—
for the fine Scotch
words and phrases
still
to her like bits of egg-shell to a chicken.
stick
By day
she does the cleaning in a studio building for one-
and-seven a week.
She could
see her
way
clearer