A sceneshifter had even stopped Fauchery's hat just when the devilish thing was going to bound onto the stage in the middle of the struggle.
Meanwhile Vulcan, who had been gagging away to amuse the audience, gave Rose her cue a second time.

But she stood motionless, still gazing at the two men.
"Oh, don't look at THEM!" Bordenave furiously whispered to her.

"Go on the stage; go on, do! It's no business of yours! Why, you're missing your cue!" And with a push from the manager, Rose stepped over the prostrate bodies and found herself in the flare of the footlights and in the presence of the audience.

She had quite failed to understand why they were fighting on the floor behind her.

Trembling from head to foot and with a humming in her ears, she came down to the footlights, Diana's sweet, amorous smile on her lips, and attacked the opening lines of her duet with so feeling a voice that the public gave her a veritable ovation.
Behind the scenery she could hear the dull thuds caused by the two men.
They had rolled down to the wings, but fortunately the music covered the noise made by their feet as they kicked against them.
"By God!" yelled Bordenave in exasperation when at last he had succeeded in separating them.