Everything else, even the desire for applause, was forgotten.

Though her performance might be called only a perilous feat, she felt it to be true, genuine art.

Her whole soul was merged in the desire to execute, boldly and yet gracefully, the greatest and most perfect performance attainable by a ropedancer.

With beads of perspiration on her brow, and eyes uplifted, she threw the cage aside, swung her Mercury staff aloft, and danced along the rope in waltz time, as though borne by the gods of the wind.

Whirling swiftly around, her slender figure darted in graceful curves from one end of the narrow path to the other.