When the hall went dim, the second half started at once. No bell to mark the start, no buzzer, no voice to announce it. I came out on the stage and laid out at length my resolve for the clash.
I will do my best for love! That sort of thing, and it was embarrassing! Even if it were true, saying it in front of people is impossible, is it not? The fact that Her Majesty and the maids around me were praising it from mouth to mouth meant it must be ordinary. The guests in the seats below were clapping hard too.
Then at last it went into battle mode. And as planned, or rather, the duke who had struck a great pose was brought down splendidly by an arrow. He exited, easy and quick. The audience was a storm of abuse at the duke.
"Is it all right to pile that much abuse on the duke?"
I asked, just in case.
"It is inside the play. You may say anything to a person in the play. The setting is that they do not exist in reality."
"Haa…"
