ice of Mr. Spratt.

"Come right down in front here, Burnit. Jimmy, show the gentleman how
to get down."

"Thees way," snapped the gaunt man, with evident relief but no
abatement whatever of his briskness, and he very hastily walked over
to the right wings, where Jimmy, the house electrician, piloted the
trio with equal relief through the clustered mass of singers to the
door behind the boxes. As they emerged into the auditorium the raucous
voice of the gaunt man was heard to shout: "All ready now. _Carmen_
all ze way through." An apparent repetition of which statement he
immediately made with equal raucousness in two or three languages.
There was a call to Caravaggio in English, to Ricardo and the Signers
Fivizzano and Rivaroli in Italian, to Messrs. Philippi and
Schaerbeeken in Spanish and Dutch, to Madam Villenauve in French, to
Madam Kadanoff in Russian, and to Mademoiselle Toeroek in Hungarian, to
know if they were ready; then, in rough but effective German, he
informed the Herr Professor down in the orchestra that all was
prepared, clapped his hands, cried "Overture," and immediately plunged
to the right upper entrance, marked by two chairs, where, with shrill
objurgations, he began instructing and drilling the Soldiers' Chorus
out of certain remembered awkwardnesses, as Herr Fruehlingsvogel's
baton fell for the overture.

Shorn of all the glamor that scenic environment, light effects and
costume could give them, it was a distinct shock to Agnes to gaze in
wondering horror from each one of those amazing faces to the other,
and when the cigarette girls trooped out, amazement gave way to
downright consternation. Nevertheless, she cheered up considerably,
and the apex of her cheerfulness was reached when the oversized
Signorina Caravaggio sang, very musically, however, the role of the
petite and piquant Carmen. It was then that, sitting by Bobby in the
darkness, Agnes observed with a sigh of content:

"Your trustee quite approves, Bobby. I don't mind being absolutely
truthful for once in my life. I _was_ a little jealous. But how could
I be? Really, their voices are fine."

Mr. Spratt, too, was of that opinion, and he came back to Bobby to say
so most emphatically.

"They'll do," said he. "After the first night they'll have this town
crazy. If the seat sale don't go right for Monday we'll pack the house
with paper, and the rest of the week will go big. Just hear that
Ricardo! The little bit of a sawed-off toad