And do not fear for me; the moment the hands point to eight I will step upon the platform." He disappeared.

She held her watch before her.

She was so impatient that the second-hand seemed whole tedious minutes dragging its way around the circle.

At last the supreme moment came, and with head erect and the bearing of an empress she swept through the door and stood upon the stage.

Her eyes fell upon only a vast, brilliant emptiness--there were not forty people in the house! There were only a handful of coarse men and ten or twelve still coarser women, lolling upon the benches and scattered about singly and in couples.
Her pulses stood still, her limbs quaked, the gladness went out of her face.