After the comedians had gone out, the iron advertisement curtain was let down.
"What comes now?" said McTeague, bewildered.
"It's the intermission of fifteen minutes now."
The musicians disappeared through the rabbit hutch, and the audience stirred and stretched itself. Most of the young men left their seats.
During this intermission McTeague and his party had "refreshments." Mrs. Sieppe and Trina had Queen Charlottes, McTeague drank a glass of beer, Owgooste ate the orange and one of the bananas. He begged for a glass of lemonade, which was finally given him.
"Joost to geep um quiet," observed Mrs. Sieppe.
But almost immediately after drinking his lemonade Owgooste was seized with a sudden restlessness. He twisted and wriggled in his seat, swinging his legs violently, looking about him with eyes full of a vague distress. At length, just as the musicians were returning, he stood up and whispered energetically in his mother's ear. Mrs. Sieppe was exasperated at once.
"No, no," she cried, reseating him brusquely.
The performance was resumed. A lightning artist appeared, drawing caricatures and portraits with incredible swiftness. He even went so far as to ask for subjects from the audience, and the names of prominent men were shouted to him from the gallery. He drew portraits of the President, of Grant, of Washington, of Napoleon Bonaparte, of Bismarck, of Garibaldi, of P. T. Barnum.
And so the evening passed. The hall grew very hot, and the smoke of innumerable cigars made the eyes smart. A thick blue mist hung low over the heads of the audience. The air was full of varied smells — the smell of stale cigars, of flat beer, of orange peel, of gas, of sachet powders, and of cheap perfumery.