eye
of the audience. Access to the stage during rehearsal is strictly
confined to the performers, although that is the least part of the
exhibition; but by special favour, we were taken in charge by the
chief mechanist, an individual provided with the necessary technical
knowledge, as well as with a material bunch of keys to unlock all the
mysteries of the place.

Our _debut_ was made upon the stage, which we examined in its various
parts and appendages while the ballet practice was proceeding. The
curtain was up: the audience part of the house, from the pit to the
ceiling, was covered with linen, in order to preserve the satin
draperies from dust. Comparative darkness pervaded the vast space; but
the front of the stage was illumined by a pipe of gas, pierced for
jets, running over the orchestra from wing to wing; while a beam of
sunlight, penetrating through the cords and pulleys of the upper
regions, cast a strange lustre on the boards, as if it had come
through green glass. Half a dozen chairs were placed in front of the
stage, on one of which sat the ballet-master--a stout, bald-headed
man, who beat time with his stick. A violinist played at his elbow the
skeleton airs of the ballet music, while the male and female dancers
executed their assigned parts; the stout bald-headed gentleman
occasionally interrupting the rehearsal to suggest improvements, or to
issue a peremptory reprimand to one of those pale, pretty things who
were bounding across the stage in short muslin petticoats and faded
white satin rehearsal chaussure. 'Elle est folle!' 'Allez aux petites
maisons!' sounded rather ungallant, if we did not know that an
effective drill for so refractory a corps is not to be got through by
the aid of the academy of compliments. The master himself, suiting the
action to the word, occasionally started up, and making some _pas_, as
an illustrative example, with his heels flying in the air, was
certainly in a state of signal incongruity with his aspect, which,
when seated, was that of a steady-looking banker's clerk from Lombard
Street.

The width of the stage between the so-called fly-rails is 50 feet;
while the depth from the footlights to the wall at the back, is 80
feet. But on extraordinary occasions, it is possible to obtain even a
longer vista; for the wall opposite the centre of the stage is
pierced by a large archway, behind which, to the outer wall, is a
space of 36 feet; so that by introducing a scene of a