The audience had never seen the part so conceived, and a few criticised it.

But her beauty and her voice and her overflowing feeling carried all before her; and this, also, was accepted as a remarkable inspiration of theatrical genius.
When the wave of her own excitement was subsiding, the magnetism of an admiring audience began to affect her strongly.

With an outburst of fury, she sang, "War! War!" The audience cried, "_Bis! Bis_!" and she sang it as powerfully the second time.
What it was that had sustained and carried her through that terrible ordeal, she could never understand.
When the curtain dropped, Fitzgerald was about to rush after her; but his wife caught his arm, and he was obliged to follow.

It was an awful penance he underwent, submitting to this necessary restraint; and while his soul was seething like a boiling caldron, he was obliged to answer evasively to Lily's frequent declaration that the superb voice of this Spanish _prima donna_ was exactly like the wonderful voice that went wandering round the plantation, like a restless ghost.
Papa and Mamma Balbino were waiting to receive the triumphant _cantatrice_, as she left the stage.

"_Brava! Brava_!" shouted the Signor, in a great fever of excitement; but seeing how pale she looked, he pressed her hand in silence, while Madame wrapped her in shawls.