When the parade was over, and it attracted so much attention that Cæsar predicted a bumper house for the evening, the Tambys made a very good dinner upon what was still left in Madame Pradère's bountiful basket, and then Nadine and Cæsar gave the finishing touches to the arrangements for the performance.
What the little mountebanks called somewhat grandly their theater, was really but a few planks placed upon trestles not more than a yard high. The stage was about three yards long by as many deep, and there was a drop-curtain of calico sadly the worse for wear, while the back was closed in by a bit of canvas upon which had been painted some trees with the idea of conveying the notion of a forest.
It was all pathetically simple and shabby, yet Nadine somehow managed by dint of her ingenuity, aided by her excellent taste, to make it look better than one would imagine, by adding sundry little decorative touches such as only a woman's hand could bestow.
Half-past seven came, and already not only small boys but grown-up people also began to secure their seats upon the planks, the chairs in front being of course all reserved for Madame Pradère and her guests.
A few minutes before eight the soldiers appeared in great number, and the young Tambys would have had a difficult job keeping them out of the reserved seats but for the presence of the gendarme, who called out at the top of his big voice:
"You cannot take those chairs. They are reserved for certain distinguished patrons as you will soon see. Let me tell you, then, not to sit on them."
"Oh! we're not deaf. We can hear you all right," retorted the soldiers, making haste to settle themselves in the best places that were still available.
When eight o'clock struck and neither Madame Pradère nor the other guests put in an appearance the spectators commenced to shout:
"Curtain! Curtain!" and to utter shrill cries of impatience.
It was the soldiers that called out "Curtain!" after the fashion of the "gods" in the galleries of the real theaters which they had attended in the cities.