Again, again, and again it was renewed.

The subordinate singers were quickly disposed of before the curtain, then Al'mah received her memorable tribute.

How many times she came and went she never knew; but at last the curtain, rising, showed her well up the stage beside a table where two huge candles flared.

The storm of applause breaking forth once more, the grateful singer raised her arms and spread them out impulsively in gratitude and dramatic abandon.
As she did so, the loose, flowing sleeve of her robe caught the flame of a candle, and in an instant she was in a cloud of fire.

The wild applause turned suddenly to notes of terror as, with a sharp cry, she stumbled forward to the middle of the stage.
For one stark moment no one stirred, then suddenly a man with an opera-cloak on his arm was seen to spring across a space of many feet between a box on the level of the stage and the stage itself.