Six times the number of tickets issued might have been readily sold.

Friends and acquaintances of the actors came from curiosity to see how they would acquit themselves; while other classes of people came because they were eager to see well-known notabilities in unwonted situations.

When ladies, hitherto only beheld in frigid, impenetrable positions behind their coachmen in Markton High Street, were about to reveal their hidden traits, home attitudes, intimate smiles, nods, and perhaps kisses, to the public eye, it was a throwing open of fascinating social secrets not to be missed for money.
The performance opened with no further delay than was occasioned by the customary refusal of the curtain at these times to rise more than two feet six inches; but this hitch was remedied, and the play began.

It was with no enviable emotion that Somerset, who was watching intently, saw, not Mr.Mild, but Captain De Stancy, enter as the King of Navarre.
Somerset as a friend of the family had had a seat reserved for him next to that of Mrs.Goodman, and turning to her he said with some excitement, 'I understood that Mr.Mild had agreed to take that part ?' 'Yes,' she said in a whisper, 'so he had; but he broke down.

Luckily Captain De Stancy was familiar with the part, through having coached the others so persistently, and he undertook it off-hand.