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 ACT II

SCENE 1

THE CIRCUS

The stained and spotted canvas of the big tent hangs silent in the night.

On the right is the great gilded wagon in which the lions are drawn when on parade. On the left a light burns within the tent, throwing on the canvas the gigantic shadowed forms of those who pass. It is evidently the rear of the circus where the circus folk live.

Straw litters the ground.

In the light of a lantern, right, sits the ragged figure of an old man, studying some cards laid out before him on the ground. A clown enters, carrying a bundle of torn hoops. He deposits them and stops at a basin near the opening of the tent to wash the make-up from his face.

A bare-back rider crosses the stage. She pauses for a moment in the flood of light that fills the entrance of the tent and streams across the stage.

It is Lu, in all the glitter of her ring costume. From the shadows the clown speaks to her.