Heroine enters.
“Hot roses! Red-hot roses! Please buy my roses!”
Enter The Mouse. Womanlike, she screams at sight of The Mouse. He seizes her and is just about to splash her into the river, which the property-man has just pushed on. She begs him not to throw her into the cold, cold water, but to wait until it’s warmer. “You had a mother once,” she cries.
He did happen to have a mother once, and he relents; he waits until the ice thaws, then he throws her in.
She is about to swallow the river, when the hero comes on and does a song and dance. One more swallow and the river would vanish forever, but the hero does not wait. He plunges in and gets his feet wet—all for the love of her.
“Shaved—saved!” she cries; “you have saved my golden hair from being lost forever!”
O, joy! exceeding joy! Exit sorrow until act third.
ACT III
Scene 1: Home of the poor flower-girl, on Fifth Avenue, New York.
Heroine discovered in boudoir of her wretched million-dollar residence. Enter French maid with card.