fascinate him, in her dazzling loveliness. I
believed her young, ardent, reckless, disil-
lusioned, under sentence, feverish, avid of
pleasure. I wanted to cross the footlights and
help the slim-waisted Armand in the frilled
shirt to convince her that there was still loy-
alty and devotion in the world. Her sudden
illness, when the gayety was at its height, her
pallor, the handkerchief she crushed against
her lips, the cough she smothered under the
laughter while Gaston kept playing the piano
lightly -- it all wrung my heart. But not so
much as her cynicism in the long dialogue
with her lover which followed. How far was
I from questioning her unbelief! While the
charmingly sincere young man pleaded with
her -- accompanied by the orchestra in the
old "Traviata" duet, _"misterioso,_misteri-_
_oso!"_ -- she maintained her bitter skepticism,
and the curtain fell on her dancing recklessly
with the others, after Armand had been sent
away with his flower.

Between the acts we had no time to forget.
The orchestra kept sawing away at the "Tra-
viata" music, so joyous and sad, so thin and
far-away, so clap-trap and yet so heart-
breaking. After the second act I left Lena in

[[311]]

p310 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p311w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p312

v?