About half past ten I was told to go to my room and put on this disguise, and be ready in half an hour.

I started, but changed my mind; for I wanted to practise a little, and that room was very small.

I crossed over to the large unoccupied house on the corner of Main and Hill streets,[4] unaware that a dozen of the young people were also going there to dress for their parts.

I took the little black slave boy, Sandy, with me, and we selected a roomy and empty chamber on the second floor.

We entered it talking, and this gave a couple of half-dressed young ladies an opportunity to take refuge behind a screen undiscovered.
Their gowns and things were hanging on hooks behind the door, but I did not see them; it was Sandy that shut the door, but all his heart was in the theatricals, and he was as unlikely to notice them as I was myself.
That was a rickety screen, with many holes in it, but as I did not know there were girls behind it, I was not disturbed by that detail.