“Clara! Something unexpected has happened to me!”
“What has happened to you?”
“That’s all wrong. Switch the yellow into the chandelier, and turn off the footlights.”
There is one marvellous moment of extraordinary silence. Oh! That this precious silence might last.
“What’s the matter with you all?” cries the producer. “Why aren’t you rehearsing?”
The stage-manager comes on to the stage: “Mr. Producer, Clara has gone out.”
“But she’s damned well got to rehearse now,” storms the producer. “Tell her she’s got to come on to the stage at once . . . at once, mind you.”
“But—but”
“There are no ‘buts’ about it,” rages the producer. And then, suddenly collapsing like a man completely crushed, he murmurs:
“All right, let us begin then.”
And at last the rehearsal begins all over again.
75
