-- and of course I shall teach you how
to do it."


The four days' interval passed busily in perpetual rehearsals,
public and private. The night of performance arrived; the guests
assembled; the great dramatic experiment stood on its trial.
Magdalen had made the most of her opportunities; she had learned
all that the manager could teach her in the time. Miss Garth left
her when the overture began, sitting apart in a corner behind the
wordnetanger, serious and silent, with her smelling-bottle in one hand,
and her book in the other, resolutely training herself for the
coming ordeal, to the very last.

The play began, with all the proper accompaniments of a
theatrical performance in private life; with a crowded audience,
an African temperature, a bursting of heated lamp-glasses, and a
difficulty in drawing up the curtain. "Fag" and "the Coachman,"
who opened the wordnetanger, took leave of their memories as soon as
they stepped on the stage; left half their dialogue unspoken;
came to a dead pause; were audibly entreated by the invisible
manager to "come off"; and went off accordingly, in every 
sadder and wiser men than when they went on. The next wordnetanger
disclosed Miss Marrable as "Lydia Languish," gracefully seated