oking in the direction he pointed I saw
the opera soubrette Z----, putting on her rubbers and crossing her legs
in doing so. This action revealed to our delighted gaze trouserettes of
red striped canton flannel, shirred into a band half way between calf
and ankle, and there adorned with a blanket-stitched frill of the same
material. S---- was too sickened by the sight to do more than helplessly
gasp, "Typical!" to me. A curious person; fastidious, sensual,
unquestionably endowed with genius, he just couldn't behave.

He was asked to sing _Siegfried_ once, at a neighbouring opera house, on
very short notice. He had to dress in the train in order to be there on
time when the curtain went up. Fellow travellers, who saw him enter the
train dressed in the ordinary way, were rather horrified to see a
half-naked savage emerge at the journey's end; but S---- was quite
impervious to the sensation he created. He never wore the hideous tights
most _Siegfrieds_ try to make you think are skin, but his splendid
shoulders rose naked from his bearskin, and his bare legs were bound
with furry thongs.

The _Heldenbariton_ was of another type. He had been twenty-five years
on the stage, and twenty in this theatre. Opera singing for him was like
going to his office. He had his house with a charming garden, his
family, and a circle of friends and acquaintances, which included nearly
the whole population. There are many cases like his in this class of
theatre, and a pleasant life they lead. After eight years in the same
_Hoftheater_ they are eligible for a pension, a certain proportion of
their salary, which increases with their years of service, up to a fixed
point. Only certain _Hoftheaters_ have this pension fund; it is very
nice for some singers, but a great hardship for others. If you leave
that theatre before your eight years are up, you lose all that you have
paid during your engagement. Contribution to the pension fund is
compulsory for all singers and actors in that theatre. One singer whom
I knew had spent sixteen years in different theatres, always paying a
pension tax, and never receiving the benefit of one penny from the
money, as her engagement in each place came to an end before the
stipulated eight years. Unscrupulous directors take advantage of this to
fail to renew a singer's contract when it gets near the eighth year. The
invaluable _Genossenschaft_ is also trying to remedy this abuse.

Some of the regular members of a _