And amid this swooning murmur, these perishing sighs of sound, the orchestra struck up the small, lively notes of a waltz with a vagabond rhythm bubbling with roguish laughter.

The public were titillated; they were already on the grin.

But the gang of clappers in the foremost rows of the pit applauded furiously.

The curtain rose.
"By George!" exclaimed La Faloise, still talking away.

"There's a man with Lucy." He was looking at the stage box on the second tier to his right, the front of which Caroline and Lucy were occupying.