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For me, I only know Tom the ruffian in the Ballo in Maschera. That is all the Tom I know! They all looked at Margaret and laughed. She blushed a little, more out of annoyance than from any other reason. 'The maids wished to put me out, laughed Stromboli, 'but they could not, because I am big. So I read everything. If I tell you I read, what harm is there?

He is fierce as a bird, and hard with energy as a thunderbolt. He will dance with the blonde signora. But he never speaks. He is like some violent natural phenomenon rather than a person. The woman begins to wilt a little in his possession. 'E bello il ballo? he asked at length, one direct, flashing question. 'Si molto bello, cries the woman, glad to have speech again.

He met her first at a festa di ballo, we are told, and there he was much impressed with her grace and beauty, for she seemed like a young goddess among her less favored companions. Then began that attachment which lasted for long years and which seems to have inspired much of his earlier lyric poetry.

'Un Ballo in Maschera' , on the other hand, was for many years a great favourite in this country, and has recently been revived with remarkable success. The scene of the opera is laid in New England. Riccardo, the governor of Boston, loves Amelia, the wife of his secretary, Renato.

In the next act Renato joins forces with the conspirators, and in the last he murders Riccardo at the masked ball from which the opera takes its name. 'Un Ballo in Maschera' is one of the best operas of Verdi's middle period.

"Il Ballo in Maschera," an opera in three acts, but usually performed in four, words by M. Somma, was first produced in Rome, Feb. 17, 1859. In preparing his work for the stage, Verdi encountered numerous obstacles.

The orchestra is playing selections from the Gentile opera of "Un Ballo in Maschera," and the house is full. Mr. John F. Caine, the excellent stage manager, has given me an elegant drawing-room scene in which to speak my little piece. The curtain goes up, and I stand before a Salt Lake of upturned faces.

Badiche est ballo Bâté, Est ballotté! Oui, Badiche est ballotté; C'est papa qu'est ballotté! Happy precocity! genuine frightful gamins!" "Du Gavarni!" "Apropos, on what majority do you count, Monsieur le Président?" "One hundred and thirty-nine." "That is a large one."

Crowds gathered in the streets shouting, "Viva Verdi," implying at the same time, by the use of the letters in Verdi's name, the sentiment, "Viva Vittorio Emmanuele Re Di Italia." A way out of his difficulties, however, was finally suggested by the impresario at Rome, who arranged with the censorship to have the work brought out at the Teatro Apollo as "Un Ballo in Maschera."

A long tramp was before them. The arrangements preparatory were, therefore, made with corresponding care and diligence. The route led up the Arkansas River to the point where that stream leaves the mountains; thence they made a circuit by the Ballo Salado, or Soda Springs, coming back again upon the Arkansas, striking the stream above its great cañon.