omedies; some objected to dancing; some wanted scarcely anything else.
Some thought the comic singer decidedly low, and others hoped he would
have more to do than he usually had. Some people wouldn't promise to go,
because other people wouldn't promise to go; and other people wouldn't
go at all, because other people went. At length, and by little and
little, omitting something in this place, and adding something in
that, Miss Snevellicci pledged herself to a bill of fare which was
comprehensive enough, if it had no other merit (it included among other
trifles, four pieces, divers songs, a few combats, and several dances);
and they returned home, pretty well exhausted with the business of the
day.

Nicholas worked away at the piece, which was speedily put into
rehearsal, and then worked away at his own part, which he studied with
great perseverance and acted--as the whole company said--to perfection.
And at length the great day arrived. The crier was sent round, in the
morning, to proclaim the entertainments with the sound of bell in all
the thoroughfares; and extra bills of three feet long by nine inches
wide, were dispersed in all directions, flung down all the areas,
thrust under all the knockers, and developed in all the shops. They were
placarded on all the walls too, though not with complete success, for an
illiterate person having undertaken this office during the indisposition
of the regular bill-sticker, a part were posted sideways, and the
remainder upside down.

At half-past five, there was a rush of four people to the gallery-door;
at a quarter before six, there were at least a dozen; at six o'clock the
kicks were terrific; and when the elder Master Crummles opened the door,
he was obliged to run behind it for his life. Fifteen shillings were
taken by Mrs Grudden in the first ten minutes.

Behind the scenes, the same unwonted excitement prevailed. Miss
Snevellicci was in such a perspiration that the paint would scarcely
stay on her face. Mrs Crummles was so nervous that she could hardly
remember her part. Miss Bravassa's ringlets came out of curl with the
heat and anxiety; even Mr Crummles himself kept peeping through the hole
in the curtain, and running back, every now and then, to announce that
another man had come into the pit.

At last, the orchestra left off, and the curtain rose upon the new
piece. The first scene, in which there was nobody particular, passed
off calmly enough, but when Miss Snevell