And now he was longing--burning not only to have his eyes on her
again, but to speak to her. He would have plenty, of opportunities
of doing so at the theatre in the green-room, or in her dressing-
room, and every minute seemed to him an age till he could find such
an opportunity.
If he had been asked at that minute--if he had himself asked of his
own mind--what he meant to do--to what future he was looking,
whether he meant to marry La Lalli or to give her up, he would
probably have repudiated either alternative with equal violence. His
mind was in a state of chaos; and what was to come in any future,
except the most immediate one, he had become incapable of
considering. Now he was going to see, to hear, to breathe the same
atmosphere with her again, and to go through the wretched task of
striving to behave as usual, and look as usual in the eyes of all
Ravenna.
The performance was to commence at half-past eight o'clock, and the
Marchese, reaching the theatre nearly half-an-boar before that time,
found Bianca sufficiently nearly dressed for him to be admitted to
her dressing-room. She was putting the finishing touches to the
platting of her magnificent hair, after the fashion of a Swiss
village-girl, for the completion of her toilette as Amina. He
thought that, in this new costume, she looked more irresistibly
attractive than he had yet seen her.
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