um lily. But the Catherine
wheel, done at the last moment on one leg and then an amazing leap
into the air backwards, again brings down the house.

Miss Poppy herself sets all store on her cup and saucer. But the
audience, vulgar as ever, cannot quite see it.

And so, Alvina slips away with Miss Poppy's music-sheets, while Mr.
May sits down like a professional at the piano and makes things fly
for the up-and-down-stairs Baxter Bros. Meanwhile, Alvina's pale
face hovering like a ghost in the side darkness, as it were under
the stage.

The lamps go out: gurglings and kissings--and then the dither on the
screen: "The Human Bird," in awful shivery letters. It's not a very
good machine, and Mr. May is not a very good operator. Audience
distinctly critical. Lights up--an "Chot-let, penny a bar! Chot-let,
penny a bar!" even as in Alvina's dream--and then "The Pancake"--so
the first half over. Lights up for the interval.

Miss Pinnegar sighed and folded her hands. She looked neither to
right nor to left. In spite of herself, in spite of outraged shame
and decency, she was excited. But she felt such excitement was not
wholesome. In vain the boy most pertinently yelled "Chot-let" at
her. She looked neither to right nor left. But when she saw Alvina
nodding to her with a quick smile from the side gangway under the
stage, she almost burst into tears. It was too much for her, all at
once. And Alvina looked almost indecently excited. As she slipped
across in front of the audience, to the piano, to play the seductive
"Dream Waltz!" she looked almost fussy, like her father. James,
needless to say, flittered and hurried hither and thither around the
audience and the stage, like a wagtail on the brink of a pool.

The second half consisted of a comic drama acted by two Baxter
Bros., disguised as women, and Miss Poppy disguised as a man--with a
couple of locals thrown in to do the guardsman and the Count. This
went very well. The winding up was the first instalment of "The
Silent Grip."

When lights went up and Alvina solemnly struck "God Save Our
Gracious King," the audience was on its feet and not very quiet,
evidently hissing with excitement like doughnuts in the pan even
when the pan is taken off the fire. Mr. Houghton thanked them for
their courtesy and attention, and hoped--And nobody took the
slightest notice.

Miss Pinnegar stayed last, waiting for Alvina. And Alvina, in her
excitement, waited for Mr. May and her father.