Every phase of sophistication was manifested in that glittering
audience when the curtain rose and the sensational theme was
introduced. But to none came thoughts like those which clamored for
admittance at the portals of Carmen's mentality. In the bold challenge
of the insanely sensual portrayal of a carnal mind the girl saw the
age-old defiance of the spirit by the flesh. In the rolls of the
wondrous music, in its shrieks, its pleadings, and its dying echoes,
she heard voiced again the soul-lament of a weary world searching
vainly in the mazes of human thought for truth. As the wonderful
Deschamps danced weirdly before her in the ghastly light and fell
gloating over her gory trophy, Carmen saw but the frantic struggles of
a diseased soul, portrayed as the skilled surgeon lays bare the
malignant growth that is eating the quivering tissues of a human
frame. The immodesty of dress, the sensual suggestiveness of the
dance, the brutal flouting of every element of refinement and
delicacy, blazoned in frenzied tone and movement the bloody orgy and
dance of death which goes on incessantly upon the stage of human life,
and ends in the mad whirl and confusion and insane gibbering over the
lifeless trophies for which mankind sell their very souls.

"About the limit of tolerance, eh?" commented Haynerd, when the final
curtain dropped. "Yes, even to a vitiated taste. The passionate thirst
for the sensational has led to this sickening display of salacity--"

"Splendid, wasn't it?" came in tones of admiration from the social
secretary, who had returned to conduct her charges back to the balcony
before the guests emerged from the theater. "You will run the program
in full, and comment at some length on the expense attached," she went
on. "You have just witnessed the private production of a full opera,
unabridged, and with the regular operatic cast. Supper will follow in
a half hour. Meantime, you will remain in the balcony where you were
before."

Returning to their former position, Carmen sank into a chair at the
little table behind the screen, and strove to orient her thought.
Haynerd sat down beside her to arrange his voluminous notes. Presently
footsteps were heard, and the sound of voices. Haynerd glanced through
the hinge of the screen. "Ha!" he whispered, "here comes Ames
and--who's with him? Ah, Representative Wales. Showing him about, I
suppose."

Carmen gazed at the approaching men with fascinated eyes, although she