eal force of the great explanatory truth
that one generation succeeds another.

* * * * *

THE SISTERS QITA

The manuscript ran thus:

* * * * *

When I had finished my daily personal examination of the ropes
and-trapezes, I hesitated a moment, and then climbed up again, to the
roof, where the red and the blue long ropes were fastened. I took my
sharp scissors from my chatelaine, and gently fretted the blue rope with
one blade of the scissors until only a single strand was left intact. I
gazed down at the vast floor a hundred feet below. The afternoon
varieties were over, and a phrenologist was talking to a small crowd of
gapers in a corner. The rest of the floor was pretty empty save for the
chairs and the fancy stalls, and the fatigued stall-girls in their black
dresses. I too, had once almost been a stall-girl at the Aquarium! I
descended. Few observed me in my severe street dress. Our secretary,
Charles, attended me on the stage.

'Everything right, Miss Paquita?' he said, handing me my hat and gloves,
which I had given him, to hold.

I nodded. I could see that he thought I was in one of my stern, far-away
moods.

'Miss Mariquita is waiting for you in the carriage,' he said.

We drove away in silence--I with my inborn melancholy too sad, Sally
(Mariquita) too happy to speak. This daily afternoon drive was really
part of our 'turn'! A team of four mules driven by a negro will make a
sensation even in Regent Street. All London looked at us, and contrasted
our impassive beauty--mine mature (too mature!) and dark, Sally's so
blonde and youthful, our simple costumes, and the fact that we stayed at
an exclusive Mayfair hotel, with the stupendous flourish of our turnout.
The renowned Sisters Qita--Paquita and Mariquita Qita--and the renowned
mules of the Sisters Qita! Two hundred pounds a week at the Aquarium!
Twenty-five thousand francs for one month at the Casino de Paris! Twelve
thousand five hundred dollars for a tour of fifty performances in the
States! Fifteen hundred pesos a night and a special train _de luxe_ in
Argentina and Brazil! I could see the loungers and the drivers talking
and pointing as usual. The gilded loungers in Verrey's cafe got up and
watched us through the windows as we passed. This was fame. For nearly
twenty years I had been intimate with fame, and with the envy of women
and the foolish homage of men.

We saw dozens