r by three extremely beautiful and graceful young girls who
followed him. Round about the small group was ranged a semicircle of
handsome creatures in long skirts, behind whom was another semicircle of
young men in white flannels; the scene was a street in Mandalay. The
red-nosed comedian began by making a joke concerning his mother-in-law,
and another concerning mendacious statements to his wife to explain his
nocturnal absences from home, and another concerning his intoxicated
condition. The three extremely beautiful and graceful young girls
laughed deliriously at the red-nosed comedian; they replied in a similar
vein. They clasped his neck and kissed him rapturously, and thereupon he
sang a song, of which the message was that all three extremely beautiful
and graceful girls practised professionally the most ancient and stable
of feminine vocations; the girls, by means of many refrains, confirmed
this definition of their status in society. Then the four of them
danced, and there was enthusiastic applause from every part of the house
except the semicircle of European odalisques lost, for some unexplained
reason, in Mandalay. These ladies, the indubitable physical attractions
of each of whom were known by the management to fill five or six stalls
every night, took no pains whatever to hide that they were acutely bored
by the whole proceedings. Self-sufficient in their beauty, deeply aware
of the power of their beauty, they deigned to move a lackadaisical arm
or leg at intervals in accordance with the respectful suggestions of the
conductor.

Soon afterwards the gay spark herself appeared, amid a hysteria of
applause. She played the part of the wife of a military officer, and
displayed therein a marvellous, a terrifying vitality of tongue, leg,
and arm. The young men in white flannels surrounded her, and she could
flirt with all of them; she was on intimate terms with the red-nosed
comedian, and also with the trio of delightful wantons, and her ideals
in life seemed to be identical with theirs. When, through the arrival of
certain dandies twirling canes, and the mysterious transformation of the
Burmese street into a Parisian cafe, these ideals were on the point of
realization, there was a great burst of brass in the orchestra,
succeeded by a violent chorus, some kicking, and a general wassail, and
the curtain fell on the first act. It had to be raised four times before
the gratefully appreciative clapping would cease.