Perhaps Viola in _Twelfth Night_? Or perhaps not Shakespeare at all. Maybe the people at the Academy would think she was too arty or too pretentious? Maybe she should do something dramatic and full of stormy emotion, like Blanche in _A Streetcar Named Desire_? Or, better for her development and age, a light, brittle, comedy role...?
Nothing seemed quite right. Peggy's thoughts shifted with the shadows overhead. All the plays she had ever seen or read or acted in melted together in a blur, until the characters from one seemed to be talking with the characters from another and moving about in an enormous set made of pieces from two or three different plays. More actors kept coming on in a fantastic assortment of costumes until the stage was full. Then the stage lights dimmed, the actors joined hands across the stage to bow, the curtain slowly descended, the lights went out--and Peggy was fast asleep.
When Peggy awoke in the early-morning sunshine that slanted into her room, it was not yet six o'clock. She reached over to shut off the alarm so that it would not ring at seven, the time she had decided to get up for her big day.
"People say that actors live in a dream world," Peggy thought with a smile. "Maybe that's why I seem to want so little sleep. I get enough of dreams when I'm supposed to be wide awake!"
Recognizing that it would be useless to try to doze off again, she quickly slipped out of bed and quietly set about her morning routine of washing and dressing. The extra time gained by her early awakening would give her an opportunity to select her reading for the Academy, Peggy told herself as she stepped into the shower. But first things first; before she could think about the reading she would need a clear mind, and that meant that all the many details of packing and dressing must be taken care of. As she wrapped herself in an oversized bath towel, Peggy was already mentally choosing her clothes.
An hour and a half later, when Mr. and Mrs. Lane came downstairs for breakfast, they discovered Peggy, dressed and ready for the trip, sitting surrounded by books at the big desk in the "library" end of the living room. Her suitcase stood fully packed in the front hall, a large traveling purse leaning next to it like a puppy sleeping by its mother.