'd just burnt his fingers unwinding from
the neck of a hot electric bulb some crepe hair he'd wound there to
dry after wetting and stretching it to turn it from crinkly to
straight for his Banquo beard. Bruce is always getting to the theater
late and trying shortcuts.

But I had eyes only for Sid. So help me, as soon as I saw him they
bugged again. _Greta_, I told myself, _you're going to have to send
Martin out to the drugstore for some anti-bug powder._ "_For the
roaches, boy?_" "_No, for the eyes._"

Sid was made up and had his long mustaches and elf-locked Macbeth wig
on--and his corset too. I could tell by the way his waist was sucked
in before he saw me. But instead of dark kilts and that bronze-studded
sweat-stained leather battle harness that lets him show off his beefy
shoulders and the top half of his heavily furred chest--and which
really does look great on Macbeth in the first act when he comes in
straight from battle--but instead of that he was wearing, so help me,
red tights cross-gartered with strips of gold-blue tinsel-cloth, a
green doublet gold-trimmed and to top it a ruff, and he was trying to
fit onto his front a bright silvered cuirass that would have looked
just dandy maybe on one of the Pope's Swiss Guards.

I thought, _Siddy, Willy S. ought to reach out of his portrait there
and bop you one on the koko for contemplating such a crazy-quilt
desecration of just about his greatest and certainly his most
atmospheric play._

Just then he noticed me and hissed accusingly, "There thou art, slothy
minx! Spring to and help stuff me into this monstrous chest-kettle."

"Siddy, what _is_ all this?" I demanded as my hands automatically
obeyed. "Are you going to play _Macbeth_ for laughs, except maybe
leaving the Porter a serious character? You think you're Red Skelton?"

[Illustration]

"What monstrous brabble is this, you mad bitch?" he retorted, grunting
as I bear-hugged his waist, shouldering the cuirass to squeeze it
home.

"The clown costumes on all you men," I told him, for now I'd noticed
that the others were in rainbow hues, Bruce a real eye-buster in
yellow tights and violet doublet as he furiously bushed out and
clipped crosswise sections of beard and slapped them on his chin
gleaming brown with spirit gum. "I haven't seen any eight-inch
polka-dots yet but I'm sure I will."

Suddenly a big grin split Siddy's face and he laughed out loud at me,
though the laugh changed to a gasp as I strap