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Dorian Gray grew pale as he watched her. Neither of his friends dared to say anything to him. She seemed to them to be absolutely incompetent. They were horribly disappointed.
Yet they felt that the true test of any Juliet is the balcony scene of the second act. They waited for that. If she failed there, there was nothing in her.
She looked charming as she came out in the moonlight. That could not be denied. But the staginess of her acting was unbearable, and grew worse as she went on. Her gestures became absurdly artificial. She over–emphasized everything that she had to say. The beautiful passage,––
Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face, Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek For that which thou hast heard me speak to–night,––
was declaimed with the painful precision of a school–girl who has been taught to recite by some second–rate professor of elocution. When she leaned over the balcony and came to those wonderful lines,––
Although I joy in thee, I have no joy of this contract to–night: It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden; Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be Ere one can say, "It lightens." Sweet, good–night! This bud of love by summer's ripening breath May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet,––