FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67  
68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   >>  
bottom of a bed or a big screen. When they had passed the gate, they turned the screens round and leaned them against the wall; one of them represented a badly painted tiled stove, another the door of a country cottage, perhaps a forester's cottage. Others a wood, a window, and a library. She understood. It was the scenery of a play. And after a while she recognised the rose tree from Faust. The shed was used by the theatre for storing scenes and stage properties; she herself had more than once stood by the side of the rose tree, singing "Gentle flowers in the dew." The thought that they were going to play Faust wrung her heart, but she had one little comfort: she had never sung the principal part in it, for the principal part is Margaret's. "I don't mind Faust; but I shall die if they play Carmen or Aida." And she sat and watched the change in the repertoire. She knew a fortnight before the papers what was going to be played next. It was amusing in a way. She knew when the Freischuetz was going to be played, for she saw the wolves' den being brought out; she knew when they were going to put on the Flying Dutchman, for the ship and the sea came out of the shed; and Tannhaeuser, and Lohengrin, and many others. But the inevitable day dawned--for the inevitable must happen. The men had again gone into the shed (she remembered that the name of one of them was Lindquist, and that it was his business to look after the pulleys), and presently reappeared with a Spanish market-place. The scene was not standing straight up, so that she could not see at once what it was, but one of the men turned it slowly over, and when he stood it up on its side she could see the back, which is always very ugly. And one after the other, slowly, as if they warded to prolong the torture, huge, black letters appeared: CARMEN. It was Carmen! "I shall die," said the singer. But she did not die, not even when they played Aida. But her name was blotted out from the memory of the public, her picture disappeared from the stationers' windows, and from the post-cards; finally her portrait was removed from the foyer of the theatre by an unknown hand. She could not understand how men could forget so quickly. It was quite inexplicable! But she mourned for herself as if she were mourning a friend who had died; and wasn't it true, that the singer, the famous singer, was dead? One evening she was strolling through a deserted street. At one
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67  
68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   >>  



Top keywords:
singer
 

played

 

theatre

 

inevitable

 

Carmen

 

turned

 

cottage

 
principal
 

slowly

 
remembered

business

 

Lindquist

 

market

 

straight

 

standing

 
Spanish
 

pulleys

 
presently
 

reappeared

 

mourned


inexplicable

 
mourning
 

friend

 

quickly

 

understand

 

forget

 

deserted

 
street
 

strolling

 

evening


famous
 

unknown

 
CARMEN
 

blotted

 

appeared

 

letters

 

prolong

 

torture

 

memory

 

public


finally

 

portrait

 

removed

 
picture
 
disappeared
 

stationers

 
windows
 

warded

 

understood

 

scenery