lease of
Her Majesty's. The house had long been looked upon as something of a
white elephant in the theatrical jungle; but Lumley, being pushful and
knowledgeable, soon built up a valuable following and set the
establishment on its legs.

As luck would have it, Lola's interview with him came at just the
right moment, for he was alternating ballet with opera and was in want
of a fresh attraction. Convinced that he recognised it in his caller
(or, perhaps, anxious to please Lord Malmesbury), he offered her an
engagement there and then to dance a _pas seul_ between the acts of
_Il Barbiere di Seviglia_.

"If you make a hit," he said, "you shall have a contract for the rest
of the season. It all depends on yourself."

Lola, wanting nothing better, left the managerial office, treading on
air.

As was his custom, Lumley cultivated the critics, and would receive
them in his sanctum whenever he had a novel attraction to submit.

"I have a surprise for you in my next programme," he said, when the
champagne and cigars had been discussed. "This is that I have secured
Donna Lola, a Spanish dancer, direct from Seville. She is, I assure
you, deliciously beautiful and remarkably accomplished. I pledge you
my word, gentlemen, she will create a positive _furore_ here."

In 1843 dramatic critics had the privilege of attending rehearsals and
penetrating behind the scenes. One of their number, adopting the
pseudonym "Q," has left an account of the manner in which he first met
Lola Montez. He had called on Lumley for a gossip, and was invited by
that authority to descend to the stage and watch his new acquisition
practising a dance there.

"At that period," he says, "her figure was even more attractive than
her face, lovely as the latter was. Lithe and graceful as a young
fawn, every movement she made was instinct with melody. Her dark eyes
were blazing and flashing with excitement, for she felt that I was
willing to admire her.... As she swept round the stage, her slender
waist swayed to the music, and her graceful head and neck bent with it
like a flower that bends with the impulse given to its stem by the
fitful temper of the wind."

Lumley was tactful enough to leave the pressman alone with the star.
As the latter promised to "give her a good puff in his paper," Lola,
who never missed an opportunity, made herself specially agreeable to
him. Her bright eyes did their work. "When we separated," says "Q" in
his reminiscences, "