a great ostrich fan.

Part of the program had been played, but _Pagliacci_ and Caruso were
held up while the vivid and ardent people craned out of their little
crimson boxes in the Horseshoes and turned and looked up from the
bright mosaic of the floor at the empty box which was to be the
Prince's.

There was a long roll of drums, and with a single movement the
orchestra marched into the melody of "God bless the Prince of Wales,"
and the Prince, looking extraordinarily embarrassed, came to the front
of the box.

At once there was no melody of "God bless the Prince of Wales"
perceptible; a wave of cheering and hand-clapping swept it away. The
whole of the people on the floor of the house turned to look upward and
to cheer. The people under the tiers crowded forward into the gangways
until the gangways were choked, and the floor was a solid mass of
humanity. Bright women and men correctly garbed imperilled their necks
in the galleries above in order to look down. It was an unforgettable
moment, and for the Prince a disconcerting one.

He stood blushing and looking down, wondering how on earth he was to
endure this stark publicity. He was there poised bleakly for all to
see, an unenviable position. And there was no escape. He must stand
there, because it was his job, and recover from the nervousness that
had come from finding himself so abruptly thrust on to this veritable
pillar of Stylites in the midst of an interested and curious throng.

The interest and the curiosity was intensely friendly. His personality
suffered not at all from the fact that he had lost his calm at a moment
when only the case-hardened could have remained unmoved. His
embarrassment, indeed, made the audience more friendly, and it was with
a sort of intimacy that they tittered at his familiar tricks of
nervousness, his fumbling at his tie, tugging of his coat lapels, the
passing of the hand over his hair, even the anxious use of his
handkerchief.

And this friendly and soft laughter became really appreciative when
they saw him tackle the chairs. There were two imposing and pompous
gilt chairs at the front of the box, filling it, elbowing all minor,
human chairs out of the way. The Prince turned and looked at them, and
turned them out. He would have none of them. He was not there to be a
superior person at all; he was there to be human and enjoy human
companionship. He had the front of the box filled with chairs, and he
had frie