witch. He would not give her up
and so he was punished."

"Punished?"

"Yes; he went on to live at Nice, where he had bought a villa in
foresight for some such day of disgrace. The Circe was to follow him,
but, instead of that, she has shaken off the golden links and
condescends to stay a week in Munich to amuse us coarse swiggers of
beer."

CHAPTER IV.

THE STAR IS DEAD LONG LIVE THE STAR!

By listening to others and observing them, man obtains the material for
self-preservation. Evidently this star of the minor stage was a woman to
be avoided; a rising light which might scar the sight and burn the
fingers of too venturesome an admirer. Claudius had a premonition that
he ought to go out and kill the few minutes in strolling the streets,
before keeping the appointment, even at the risk of being questioned by
the police. But he overcame the impulsion, and waited to face what might
be a danger the more.

All the hall, by instinct and from the stories circulating--perhaps
circulated by the agents of the management--divined that no common
attraction was to be presented. Besides, to displace La Belle
Stamboulane worthily on the stage, that chosen arena where the female
gladiator carries the day, a miracle of beauty, wit and skill was
requisite. Elsewhere, ability, practice, art, artifice, many gifts and
accomplishments may triumph, but the fifth element as indispensable as
the others, air, water, fire and earth--it is _love_, which legitimately
monopolizes the theatre for its exhibition and glorification. Men and
women come to such places of amusement to hear love songs, see love
scenes, and share in the fictitious joys and sorrows of love, which they
long to enact in reality. Nothing is above love; nothing equals it. He
reigns as a master in a temple, with woman as the high-priestess, and
man the victim or the chosen reward.

Preceding the novelty, a bass-singer roared a drinking-song, in which
he likened human life to a brewer's house, in which some quenched their
thirst quickly and departed; others stayed to quaff, jest, tell stories
to cronies, before staggering out "full;" the oldest went to sleep
there. Though rich-voiced and liked, this time he retired in silence,
for the audience was tormented with impatience.

The orchestra struck up a fashionable waltz, and, as the door, at the
back of a drawing-room scene, was opened in both flaps by the liveried
servants, a young lady entered, so fresh, delight