of
motionless waves. The stage itself was strange: a sort of huge cave, with
strips of scenery hanging like stalactites; near the wall, a metal
pedestal, with a red velvet platform, looked like a blood-stained
scaffold; one suspected the presence of properties: wheels, iron
implements, tangled ropes, like so many instruments of torture. At the New
Zealanders' feet, half-naked bodies, suggesting the souls of the damned,
were tumbling, practising falls; a woman in a white wrap hovered round;
and, near the proscenium, a pack of trained seals, lying in their moist
boxes, raised their frightened heads, as who should say corpses cast up on
the shores of hell by the silent waves of the pit.

But three slender forms, spinning on their trapeze almost above Pa's head,
sprang lightly to the stage, near an old fellow in spectacles.

"Why, Mr. Fuchs and the Three Graces! Here's a surprise!" said Pa, who had
not seen them since the New York Olympians. "When did you get here?
Yesterday?"

There was a general shaking of hands. Fuchs congratulated Pa on his
success, said he had followed his progress in the papers. Pa owned a
troupe now and had a name.

"So this is your Lily," said Fuchs, tapping her on the cheek as she joined
the group. "A real lady! And good, eh?"

The Three Graces also congratulated Pa ... kissed Lily:

"How sweet you've grown! Why, Lily, how pretty you are!"

Lily was so surprised, so pleased; and her Pa was very proud. He thanked
Mr. Fuchs, complimented the Three Graces in his turn, to their delight:

"What arms! What muscles!" Then, "Excuse us, eh? Lily must get ready. We
shall meet again presently, after practice."

The Graces had gone back to it already. Pa tested the bikes; took a
hurried turn at the pumps; and, when the apprentices and Lily returned:

"Yoop, up with you!"

The round began. Tom looked to the girls, constantly; ran after them; kept
an eye on their falls. Pa, constantly, hung on to Lily. Nothing else
existed when he was handling his star. His wish to do well, his love of
art for art's sake worked him up, stimulated him, made him hit out but not
in anger: it was the spark of enthusiasm, of which the apprentices caught
the reflection.

"Hi, you there, Mary! I'll pull your ear! Birdie, if I take my belt to
you!"

But his Lily above all; his Lily! his seven stone of flesh and bones! Pa
was an artiste; he had thought of a thousand things since his trip to
Brighton. New and astounding tr