Ballet Shoes

That night, Petrova can’t sleep, worrying about the role of the prince in Richard III. She feels that it would be better if she knew how many lines the role had, so she sneaks out of bed to find a copy of the play in the house. She skims it until she finds the scenes with the young princes. She’s overwhelmed at first by some of the longer speeches but is relieved to find that they both die quickly.

Petrova notices a light on downstairs and creeps down to find Sylvia awake too. She’s reviewing their finances. She offers Petrova cookies and hot chocolate, and they sit to enjoy them together. Sylvia then tells Petrova a secret: She’s going to sell the house. Petrova is upset, but Sylvia replies, “I don’t want to sell it, Petrova, so don’t be angry with me; but I went to see Gum’s lawyers a month ago; all the money he left me is gone” (192-93). Sylvia must sell the house and find an apartment for herself, the girls, and Nana; the boarders will have to find other accommodations. Petrova holds it together for the rest of their talk, but back in bed, she cries herself to sleep.

The actor who played Oberon secures an audition for Pauline and Petrova, and the producer is the same one who produced A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Pauline is cast as young King Edward, and Petrova is relieved to learn that she has been given the much smaller role of the page. Both are content with their roles, and Pauline’s acting technique grows to an entirely different level: She soon receives praise in the press for her performance.

Near the end of the run, Pauline is called for a film test. The film is about Charles II, and they’re looking for someone to play his younger sister, Henrietta. Pauline, who is accustomed to auditions, isn’t nervous about the film test. Afterward, she goes home and asks Dr. Jakes to teach her all she should know about the historical figure Henrietta.

August proves to be a miserable month for the Fossils. Pauline agonizes as she waits for the film studio’s response. After seven weeks, she starts to fear that she hasn’t been cast as Henrietta. Even worse, on Petrova’s birthday, which they celebrated with a picnic the previous year, the house is mostly empty since the boarders are all away for different reasons. Petrova still worries about the house being sold, and Posy is all too aware of how bleak it is compared to the same time the previous year. The three sisters are particularly glum when they renew their vow to make their names go down in history and help Sylvia with money until Gum returns.

Pauline races down the stairs and asks Sylvia, “[C]an I take my money out of the savings bank and buy a little tent and the three of us go and camp for a week?” (204). Sylvia says that they can go to the common where Dr. Jakes and Dr. Smith are staying on vacation in Kent. Pauline insists that they need a vacation themselves. Sylvia agrees, and they send a telegram to the two women.

Dr. Jakes and Dr. Smith are delighted to have the girls camp with them, and the sisters’ mood instantly changes. They have a lovely time cooking for each other and taking walks in nature, and the farmer even “[lends] them a large barn for wet days, in which they [practice] every morning wet or fine, as they [have], of course, their ballet shoes with them” (206). Just as their vacation comes to an end, Pauline receives word from home: She got the role of Henrietta.

Pauline soon learns how different films are from theater. Instead of having several rehearsals consecutively, she’s called only when she’s needed for her scenes or for fittings. Once she’s on set, she finds that she “loathe[s] it, she loathe[s] the hours of hanging about, the endless rehearsals before a scene [is] right, and the still more innumerable ‘takes’ before it [will] pass for cameras and sound” (208). Not until she’s in a scene with the actor who plays Charles II, in which he performs their scene beautifully for the camera, does she begin to change her mind.

The director sees Pauline’s reaction and tells her that she can do that too if she tries. He also tells her that while she may know much about stage acting, she still has a lot to learn about acting for the camera, and she can start by watching her co-stars. She doesn’t tell anyone else about their conversation, but she grows to appreciate the work more and even finds herself believing that she really is Henrietta in some of her scenes.

After filming wraps, Sylvia sells the house, which will become part of a hotel in June. Pauline is cast as “the fairy godmother in a pantomime of Cinderella, and Petrova [is] one of the twenty-four jumping beans, who [are] to do specialty dances in Jack and the Beanstalk” (210). Pauline is happy to return to the stage, but Petrova finds it miserable. As she tells Mr. Simpson about it, she starts to feel even sadder about his upcoming departure. In mid-March, Posy comes home one day in tears. Madame Fidolia has taken ill and gone to Switzerland for a cure. Posy isn’t as upset that Madame is sick as she is that her training will be thrown off track.

Nana and Sylvia are horrified at Posy for caring more about her training than about Madame Fidolia’s health. They think she’s being “selfish and hard-hearted” (213), but Pauline later asks them to reconsider. Posy will be 12 soon and feels adrift, without guidance, as she plans to enter the professional world. Petrova adds that Miss Dane told her that Madame is much sicker than she let on and that it will likely be months before she’s well again.

The school isn’t as understanding of Posy’s attitude, and putting her in the senior class proves a disaster. She doesn’t think she can learn anything in there, and whenever she does the required exercises, she makes everyone laugh by impersonating different figures of the school with her movements. Finally, Miss Dane, who teaches the senior class, goes to Pauline about Posy’s behavior.

Pauline has an idea to incentivize Posy to improve her behavior. She asks if Posy has heard that the Marmaro Ballet will be coming to perform in May. Posy replies, “Of course I did. Manoff is coming here for the first time since he danced here in the Diaghileff ballets before the war. […] I’d rather see him dance than anything in the world” (218). Pauline tells her that if she’ll be good in Miss Dane’s class, she’ll buy her tickets to see the ballet. This strategy succeeds, and when the ballet performance dates are announced, Pauline buys Posy two tickets: one for herself and one for an adult of her choice (Sylvia). They book them for May 20, which is also the day of Pauline’s film premiere.

Meanwhile, come June, Sylvia still hasn’t found an apartment for the family to move into. Luckily, the boarders all found new homes, either permanent or temporary, but no one’s happy at the idea “of their home being broken up” (220); when May 20 arrives, it’s a welcome change for the household.

While Pauline doesn’t receive much notice when she arrives for the film premiere, once the audience sees her performance as Henrietta, they all want her autograph afterward. Meanwhile, the Marmaro ballet enthralls Posy, and she resolves to learn from the famous dancer Manoff. She can’t sleep that night and schemes about how to make it happen.

The next morning, Posy is missing. Dr. Jakes and Dr. Smith discuss what to do, but since she’s nearly 12, they tell Petrova and Pauline not to mention it to Sylvia or Nana. After breakfast, they’re doing their lessons when Pauline is summoned to the drawing room. When Petrova asks her what it’s about, Pauline tells her that Mr. Reubens, from the film, has “been offered a lot of money for [her] to go to Hollywood” (226). If she goes, she’ll make £100 a week or more, but the contract is for five years, and though Sylvia can accompany her, Pauline isn’t sure if she wants to be gone that long. He sent her back to talk it over with her sisters.

As if on cue, Posy returns. She announces that Manoff has agreed to train her in Czechoslovakia. She demanded that he watch her dance. After learning who had trained her, he understood why she was so skilled and insisted that she come to train with him. Now, she needs two things: Either Nana or Sylvia must agree to come live with her, and her commitment requires money.

Seeing how much Posy wants to go, Pauline excuses herself. When she returns, she tells her sisters that she has signed the Hollywood deal. Sylvia will accompany her to Hollywood, and Nana will go with Posy to live in Czechoslovakia. Petrova feels left out of the equation, but the sisters insist that she’ll be the one whose name goes down in history, as a pilot. They amend their vow one last time to help Petrova any way they can to get her name in history books.

Just then, they hear an old man’s voice. Gum has returned at last. When he learns what’s happening in the lives of the Fossil sisters, he steps in to take care of Petrova at once. Hearing of her interest in flying, he says, “That suits me. […] Might hire a car tomorrow, Petrova, and find a house near an aerodrome where you could study” (232). The Fossil sisters prepare to part ways, ready to follow their individual ambitions and dreams.