Aegisthus steals in pale and on tiptoe.What is that ghastly face looking out balefully after him from behind the arras? He raises his dagger to strike the sleeper, who turns in his bed, and opens his broad chest as if for the blow.He cannot strike the noble slumbering chieftain.
Clytemnestra glides swiftly into the room like an apparition--her arms are bare and white--her tawny hair floats down her shoulders--her face is deadly pale--and her eyes are lighted up with a smile so ghastly that people quake as they look at her.
A tremor ran through the room."Good God!" somebody said, "it's Mrs.Rawdon Crawley."Scornfully she snatches the dagger out of Aegisthus's hand and advances to the bed.You see it shining over her head in the glimmer of the lamp, and--and the lamp goes out, with a groan, and all is dark.
The darkness and the scene frightened people.Rebecca performed her part so well, and with such ghastly truth, that the spectators were all dumb, until, with a burst, all the lamps of the hall blazed out again, when everybody began to shout applause."Brava! brava!" old Steyne's strident voice was heard roaring over all the rest."By--, she'd do it too," he said between his teeth.
The performers were called by the whole house, which sounded with cries of "Manager! Clytemnestra!"Agamemnon could not be got to show in his classical tunic, but stood in the background with Aegisthus and others of the performers of the little play.Mr.Bedwin Sands led on Zuleikah and Clytemnestra.A great personage insisted on being presented to the charming Clytemnestra."Heigh ha? Run him through the body.
Marry somebody else, hay?" was the apposite remark made by His Royal Highness.
"Mrs.Rawdon Crawley was quite killing in the part,"said Lord Steyne.Becky laughed, gay and saucy looking, and swept the prettiest little curtsey ever seen.
Servants brought in salvers covered with numerous cool dainties, and the performers disappeared to get ready for the second charade-tableau.
The three syllables of this charade were to be depicted in pantomime, and the performance took place in the following wise:
First syllable.Colonel Rawdon Crawley, C.B., with a slouched hat and a staff, a great-coat, and a lantern borrowed from the stables, passed across the stage bawling out, as if warning the inhabitants of the hour.In the lower window are seen two bagmen playing apparently at the game of cribbage, over which they yawn much.
To them enters one looking like Boots (the Honourable G.Ringwood), which character the young gentleman performed to perfection, and divests them of their lower coverings; and presently Chambermaid (the Right Honourable Lord Southdown) with two candlesticks, and a warming-pan.She ascends to the upper apartment and warms the bed.She uses the warming-pan as a weapon wherewith she wards off the attention of the bagmen.
She exits.They put on their night-caps and pull down the blinds.Boots comes out and closes the shutters of the ground-floor chamber.You hear him bolting and chaining the door within.All the lights go out.The music plays Dormez, dormez, chers Amours.A voice from behind the curtain says, "First syllable."Second syllable.The lamps are lighted up all of a sudden.The music plays the old air from John of Paris, Ah quel plaisir d'etre en voyage.It is the same scene.
Between the first and second floors of the house represented, you behold a sign on which the Steyne arms are painted.All the bells are ringing all over the house.
In the lower apartment you see a man with a long slip of paper presenting it to another, who shakes his fists, threatens and vows that it is monstrous."Ostler, bring round my gig," cries another at the door.He chucks Chambermaid (the Right Honourable Lord Southdown)under the chin; she seems to deplore his absence, as Calypso did that of that other eminent traveller Ulysses.
Boots (the Honourable G.Ringwood) passes with a wooden box, containing silver flagons, and cries "Pots"with such exquisite humour and naturalness that the whole house rings with applause, and a bouquet is thrown to him.Crack, crack, crack, go the whips.Landlord, chambermaid, waiter rush to the door, but just as some distinguished guest is arriving, the curtains close, and the invisible theatrical manager cries out "Second syllable.""I think it must be 'Hotel,' " says Captain Grigg of the Life Guards; there is a general laugh at the Captain's cleverness.He is not very far from the mark.
While the third syllable is in preparation, the band begins a nautical medley--"All in the Downs," "Cease Rude Boreas," "Rule Britannia," "In the Bay of Biscay O!"--some maritime event is about to take place.A ben is heard ringing as the curtain draws aside."Now, gents, for the shore!" a voice exclaims.People take leave of each other.They point anxiously as if towards the clouds, which are represented by a dark curtain, and they nod their heads in fear.Lady Squeams (the Right Honourable Lord Southdown), her lap-dog, her bags, reticules, and husband sit down, and cling hold of some ropes.It is evidently a ship.
The Captain (Colonel Crawley, C.B.), with a cocked hat and a telescope, comes in, holding his hat on his head, and looks out; his coat tails fly about as if in the wind.When he leaves go of his hat to use his telescope, his hat flies off, with immense applause.It is blowing fresh.The music rises and whistles louder and louder;the mariners go across the stage staggering, as if the ship was in severe motion.The Steward (the Honourable G.
Ringwood) passes reeling by, holding six basins.He puts one rapidly by Lord Squeams--Lady Squeams, giving a pinch to her dog, which begins to howl piteously, puts her pocket-handkerchief to her face, and rushes away as for the cabin.The music rises up to the wildest pitch of stormy excitement, and the third syllable is concluded.
