"
"A May piece without a Queen! Why, it would be like the play of Hamlet
with Hamlet left out!" declared Marion. "Did you not think that if you
declined the part we might give it to some one else?"
Abby colored and was silent. This had, indeed, been the hardest part
of the struggle with herself. But there was an element of the heroic
in her character. She never did anything by halves; like the little
girl so often quoted, "when she was good, she was very, _very_, good."
Marion stood a moment looking at her. "And do you really mean," she
said at length, "that you are ready to give up the _role_ you were so
delighted with yesterday, and the satisfaction of queening it over your
companions if only for an hour?--that you are willing to make the
sacrifice to honor the Blessed Virgin?"
With some embarrassment, Abby admitted that this was her motive.
A sudden thought occurred to Marion. "Then, Abby, you shall!" said
she. "I'll arrange it; but don't say a word about it to any one. Let
the girls think you are to be Queen, if they please. Why, missy," she
went on, becoming enthusiastic, "it is really a clever idea for our
drama.
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