PRISCILLA RUNS AWAY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14276, 17 August 1910, Page 2

PRISCILLA RUNS AWAY.

PRINSOILLA RUNS AWAY. NEW PLAY AT HAYMARKET. Priscilia ran away because she had been building cottages m the air. Not castles, you understand, because she lived ui them and was quite tired of such architecture. Priscilfa ran away because she was on the top of the ladder and wanted to know what it felt like at the bottom. For, you see, t'liscilla was a princess. it was partly tue fault of Herr Fritzling and i'r.seilla's pedagogue. He was au extreme type of the German pedagogical sentimentalist—which is a very dangerous kind of thing—and besides teaching bis pupil Greek,, histoiy, and modern geography, taught her also to despise the conventions of a Oourf, to love liberty, and to dream of the simple life which could never be hers.

I V\ hen, therefore, the Grand Duke (.sprang a surprise upon his daughter and prepared to make a formal announcement of her betrothal to a German pr,neeling without consulting her on the. subject, i'riscilla astonished Herr Fritidmg by the statement that she was going to run away to the simple life and the cottage in the air. She astounded him still more by commanding him, most hewitehingly. most imperiously, to run away with "her. Leaving a terrible scene to follow in , the Court the old pedagogue a,i r | the I young I'nueess bolted thiougb the uinjdow, and by good luck found the very (cottage of their dreams in an Kimlish Village. Fr.voillii proceeded to make herself lat home m ;t. H J,;u| creepers j„ t ],,, ingot place, one geranium, old oak beams, no carpet, and one del woman, i'riscilla bought the cottage over the head of the olrl woman and made her the lodger, discovered that the Ob was where the kettle was kept, blackened j her fingcis with it, ordered her maid to ! make tea (the maid also ran away), land bewitched the young squire of the I parish and the parson's son. Thev fall I in love with her, do her shopping", and I astonish their mothers exceedingly. I PnVilln heiseif does the most' asitouinlifm things in fhu most delightful , way. Kin- buys rum for old Mrs .Jones, iw.'id J.s tin- parson's lady's model old : woman, "chair-ridden but verv Ijihliicai": she invites all the village'children 'to a tea-fight on the Sabbath": she tells ; the young squire, when lie goes on ids I knees before }io-. that she is one of thos" women ly/iom men like himself do , not and cannot marry and she is so , recklessly extravagant that she drives . the pedagogue whom she calls Mr [ 'Tnt-le," into grievous debt. | It is the debt which solves a situaition heeonibiK f.„. |,„ IU .5i,,,,,!,.. For i wnen they are on the verge of .stdrva, Ition, Priscilla suddenly begins to think j that the German princeling, ]„.,■ cousin lis iiol. such a bad fellow, and that he i mii'bt be considered favourablv if be i look the trouble to come and "look at [her.

, A\o jiavc (chvs n, TTnmn pnnf-r K pn n iKf.mi-thiiiK of this kin<7 of thin" ion t.lm stapfß bo fore. Tin- storv k ,„r. , sHrtln.fr hj, its nnVinnHiy. But it ,<■ jlin.rbt n,Kl_fl l:i rnm,<f, fm <l PriwiJl;,', s J simple I iff. is a merry tiling to ivuli-li