The climax was reached in
the mad scene. Lucia, clad in white, as befitted her
malady, suddenly gathered up her streaming hair and bowed
her acknowledgment to the audience. Then from the back of
the stage--she feigned not to see it--there advanced a kind of
bamboo clothes-horse, stuck all over with bouquets. It was
very ugly, and most of the flowers in it were false. Lucia
knew this, and so did the audience; and they all knew that
the clothes-horse was a piece of stage property, brought in
to make the performance go year after year. None the less
did it unloose the great deeps. With a scream of amazement
and joy she embraced the animal, pulled out one or two
practicable blossoms, pressed them to her lips, and flung
them into her admirers. They flung them back, with loud
melodious cries, and a little boy in one of the stageboxes
snatched up his sister's carnations and offered them. "Che
carino!" exclaimed the singer. She darted at the little boy
and kissed him. Now the noise became tremendous.
"Silence! silence!" shouted many old gentlemen behind.
"Let the divine creature continue!" But the young men in
the adjacent box were imploring Lucia to extend her civility
to them. She refused, with a humorous, expressive gesture.
One of them hurled a bouquet at her. She spurned it with
her foot. Then, encouraged by the roars of the audience,
she picked it up and tossed it to them. Harriet was always
unfortunate. The bouquet struck her full in the chest, and
a little billet-doux fell out of it into her lap.
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