Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

Author:Noel Streatfeild
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780141938370
Publisher: Penguin Publishing
Published: 1949-06-11T16:00:00+00:00

‘Was I all right?’ she whispered.

‘The acting was,’ said Winifred. ‘You were out of tune in the song, though, and your ankle shook awfully in the arabesque.’

Pauline made a face.

‘I knew it did. I couldn’t hold it; I got my posture wrong. I didn’t know I sang out of tune. Was it very bad?’

‘No, only to me, because I know the song.’

Miss Jay’s voice called out for Winifred, and she got up in an awful flutter, almost snatching her music from Nana.

‘Hold your thumbs for me,’ she gasped at Pauline. ‘I did for you.’

All the children at the Academy believed that holding your thumbs brought luck. The Fossils did not really, because everybody at Cromwell Road, except Cook and Clara, thought it silly; but they had to hold them if anybody asked them to, so Pauline gripped hers. But Winifred did not seem to need any help; she recited ‘You are Old, Father William’, and then sang ‘Come unto these yellow sands’, and then did a most difficult dance. Pauline released her thumbs, and looked at Nana, who shook her head. Neither of them said anything, but they both felt sure that Winifred would get ‘Alice’. Winifred herself did not seem a bit sure when she sat down; she said that being able to do things well did not mean you got on best, and that looks and personality were more important. Miss Jay came back through the iron door, and told them they had finished, and she was taking them home. She said nothing as they went up the stairs to the stage door; but when they were in the taxi she said gently to Winifred that she thought she would be engaged as under-study; they were going to try the other children, but she thought it would be all right. Then she smiled at Pauline.

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