y since his declaration was supported by the program
which he showed me.

He was a pleasant young man. Perceiving that I was a stranger, he
volunteered the additional information that the masculine roles, as well
as the feminine ones, were being played by girls; and I trust that I
will not seem to be boasting of perspicacity when I declare that there
had already entered my mind a suspicion that such was indeed the case.

Behold them! Gaze upon the character called Daniel Voorhees Pike! See
what long strides he takes, and with what pretty tiny feet! Observe the
manliness with which he thrusts his pink little hands deep in the
pockets of his--or somebody's--pantaloons!

Look at the Grand Duke Vasili of Russia, his sweet oval face and rosy
mouth partly obscured by mustache and goatee of a most strange
wooliness.

Observe the ineradicable daintiness of the Honorable Almeric St. Aubyn,
but more particularly attend to that villain of helpless loveliness, the
Earl of Hawcastle. The frightful life which, it is indicated, the Earl
has led, leaves no tell-tale marks upon his blooming countenance. His
only facial disfigurement consists in a mustache which, by reason of its
grand-ducal lanateness, seems to hint at a mysterious relationship
between the British and Russian noblemen.

Take note, moreover, of the outlines of the players. If ever earl was
belted it was this one. If ever duke in evening dress revealed
delectable convexities of figure, it was this duke. If ever worthy male
from Indiana spoke in a soprano voice and was lithe, alluring, and
recurvous, she was Daniel Voorhees Pike.

A young woman seated near us described to her escort the personal
characteristics of the various young ladies on the stage, and when we
heard her call one girl who played in a betrousered part, "a perfect
darling," we echoed inwardly the sentiment. All were darlings. And this
especial "perfect darling" appeared as well to be a "perfect
thirty-six."

The Earl was my undoing. At a critical point in the unfolding of the
plot there was talk of his having been connected with a scandal in St.
Petersburg. This he attempted to deny, and though I am unable to quote
the exact words of his denial, the sound of it lingers sweetly in my
memory. Nor would the exact words, could I give them, convey, in print,
the quality of what was said, for the Earl, and all the rest, spoke in
the soft, melodious tones of Mississippi.

"What you-all fussin' raound h