Isn't there genius in
_that_, Sir?"
[Illustration]
"Ah!" said TIME, "I'm old-fashioned, I daresay. I'm no longer in the
movement. I might have been amused once by the story of a clandestine
tea-party and an outraged parent with a poker; I don't know. All I
_do_ know is, that I find it rather dreary at present. We'll drop in
at just one or two more places, Sir, and then go quietly home to bed,
eh?" They entered a few more Music Halls, and found the entertainment
at each pretty much alike; now and then, instead of songs about
mothers-in-law, domestic disagreements, and current scandals, they
were entertained by the spectacle of acrobats going through horrible
contortions, or women and little children performing feats high up
aloft to the imminent peril of life and limb.
"With _us_," said _Mr. Punch_, complacently, "there is a net stretched
below the performers."
"An excellent arrangement," said TIME; "and I suppose, if they _did_
happen to fall--"
"The spectators underneath would be to some extent protected," said
_Mr. Punch_.
Then there were ballets, so glittering and gorgeous and interminable,
that poor old TIME dropped asleep more than once, in spite of the din
of the orchestra. At last, although several other places remained
to be visited, he broke down altogether. "To tell you the truth," he
said, "I've had about enough of it.
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