oned.

For mummers and mumming Eustacia had the greatest contempt. The
mummers themselves were not afflicted with any such feeling for
their art, though at the same time they were not enthusiastic. A
traditional pastime is to be distinguished from a mere revival in no
more striking feature than in this, that while in the revival all is
excitement and fervour, the survival is carried on with a stolidity
and absence of stir which sets one wondering why a thing that is done
so perfunctorily should be kept up at all. Like Balaam and other
unwilling prophets, the agents seem moved by an inner compulsion
to say and do their allotted parts whether they will or no. This
unweeting manner of performance is the true ring by which, in this
refurbishing age, a fossilized survival may be known from a spurious
reproduction.

The piece was the well-known play of "Saint George," and all who were
behind the scenes assisted in the preparations, including the women
of each household. Without the cooperation of sisters and sweethearts
the dresses were likely to be a failure; but on the other hand, this
class of assistance was not without its drawbacks. The girls could
never be brought to respect tradition in designing and decorating the
armour; they insisted on attaching loops and bows of silk and velvet
in any situation pleasing to their taste. Gorget, gusset, basinet,
cuirass, gauntlet, sleeve, all alike in the view of these feminine
eyes were practicable spaces whereon to sew scraps of fluttering
colour.

It might be that Joe, who fought on the side of Christendom, had a
sweetheart, and that Jim, who fought on the side of the Moslem, had
one likewise. During the making of the costumes it would come to the
knowledge of Joe's sweetheart that Jim's was putting brilliant silk
scallops at the bottom of her lover's surcoat, in addition to the
ribbons of the visor, the bars of which, being invariably formed of
coloured strips about half an inch wide hanging before the face,
were mostly of that material. Joe's sweetheart straightway placed
brilliant silk on the scallops of the hem in question, and, going a
little further, added ribbon tufts to the shoulder pieces. Jim's, not
to be outdone, would affix bows and rosettes everywhere.

The result was that in the end the Valiant Soldier, of the Christian
army, was distinguished by no peculiarity of accoutrement from the
Turkish Knight; and what was worse, on a casual view Saint George
himself m