e skimpy.
My hobby's organizing balls like this;
And when the revelry is at its highest
Back to the everlasting Eastern Question!
I love to rule a people and a ball:
The Arbiter of Europe--

THE ATTACHE.

And its elegance!

GENTZ.

_Arbiter Elegantiarum!_

METTERNICH.

Ah,
You're talking Latin; you've been drinking?

GENTZ.

Rum.

METTERNICH.

Fanny has kept you very late at table;
Oh, this _liaison!_ you're as good as lost.

GENTZ.

What? I and Fanny? Off.

METTERNICH.

What?

GENTZ.

Off.

METTERNICH.

[_Seeing the Prefect of Police._]

Sedlinzky.

SEDLINZKY.

One word.

GENTZ.

[_To_ METTERNICH.]

It's off.

[_To a_ DOMINO.]

'Twas wrong to bring you, Fanny.
If they discovered you! What an imprudence!
A public dancer!

FANNY.

Oh, I'll dance discreetly.

GENTZ.

They'll find you out. For heaven's sake be clumsy.

METTERNICH.

A plot?

SEDLINZKY.

Yes; for the Duke!--and at this ball!

METTERNICH.

[_Lightly_.]

Here! you alarm me!

GENTZ.

Be an angel, Fanny,
And tell me why you wished to come.

FANNY.

Caprice.

METTERNICH.

I fear the Duke no more. I've killed his pride.
And he's in mourning for it. He'll not come.

SEDLINZKY.

But there's a plot!

METTERNICH.

Bah!

SEDLINZKY.

Women--

METTERNICH.

Featherbrains.

SEDLINZKY.

No! Noble ladies.

METTERNICH.

Really?

SEDLINZKY.

Poles and Greeks:
Princess Grazalcowitch.

METTERNICH.

Grazalcowitch!
That's terrible!

[_To a_ LACKEY.]

Pray let me have a sandwich.

SEDLINZKY.

You laugh?--Hush!--Here they come. They've fled the light
And seek a nook to whisper in.

[_Enter several_ DOMINOS.]

ONE OF THE DOMINOS.

My dear,
How sweet it is to run a risk for his sake.

SECOND DOMINO.

Let us conspire!

THIRD DOMINO.

His hair's such lovely auburn.

FOURTH DOMINO.

It's like a pretty little halo, dear,
Through whic