It
was simply excruciating. It could not be borne any longer, and when it
could not be borne any longer the tower sprawled irrevocably and
seven dozen plates fell in a cascade on the violet hat, and so with
an inconceivable clatter to the floor. Almost at the same moment the
being in the dress-suit and the eyeglass, becoming aware of phenomena
slightly unusual even in a restaurant, dropped his eyeglass, turned
round to the sideboard and received the other waiter's seven dozen
plates in the face and on the crown of his head.
No such effect had ever been seen in the Five Towns, and the felicity
of the audience exceeded all previous felicities. The audience yelled,
roared, shrieked, gasped, trembled, and punched itself in a furious
passion of pleasure. They make plates in the Five Towns. They live by
making plates. They understand plates. In the Five Towns a man will
carry not seven but twenty-seven dozen plates on a swaying plank for
eight hours a day up steps and down steps, and in doorways and out of
doorways, and not break one plate in seven years! Judge, therefore,
the simple but terrific satisfaction of a Five Towns audience in the
hugeness of the calamity. Moreover, every plate smashed means a demand
for a new plate and increased prosperity for the Five Towns. The
grateful crowd in the auditorium of the Empire would have covered the
stage with wreaths, if it had known that wreaths were used for other
occasions than funerals; which it did not know.
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