will fly--why haste? Is it not charming to delay--and just look at it
for a while?

Charming to sit before a great red wall, hanging beneath two gilt masks
and a scroll--The thrilling moment is when the curtain thrills, and
sounds come from the other side.

You are desired to-night to listen to those sounds and entering the
scene before you see it, to wonder and surmise--

_Bending his ear, the_ MANAGER _listens to the sounds now beginning to
come from behind the curtain._

A footstep--is it a road? A flutter of wings--is it a garden?

_The curtain here rippling as if about to rise, the_ MANAGER
_precipitately shouts, "Stop!--Do not raise it yet!" Then again bending
his ear, continues making note of the noises, clear or confused, single
or combined, that from this onward come without stop from behind
the curtain._

A magpie cawing flies away. Great wooden shoes come running over flags.
A courtyard, is it?--If so above a valley--from whence that softened
clamour of birds and barking dogs.

More and more clearly the scene suggests itself--Magically sound
creates an atmosphere!--A sheep bell tinkles intermittently--Since there
is grazing, we may look for grass.

A tree, too--a tree must rustle in the breeze, for a bullfinch warbles