The front row was soon
augmented and enriched by Lady Glenmire and Mrs Jamieson. We six
occupied the two front rows, and our aristocratic seclusion was
respected by the groups of shop-keepers who strayed in from time to
time and huddled together on the back benches. At least I
conjectured so, from the noise they made, and the sonorous bumps
they gave in sitting down; but when, in weariness of the obstinate
green curtain that would not draw up, but would stare at me with
two odd eyes, seen through holes, as in the old tapestry story, I
would fain have looked round at the merry chattering people behind
me, Miss Pole clutched my arm, and begged me not to turn, for "it
was not the thing." What "the thing" was, I never could find out,
but it must have been something eminently dull and tiresome.
However, we all sat eyes right, square front, gazing at the
tantalising curtain, and hardly speaking intelligibly, we were so
afraid of being caught in the vulgarity of making any noise in a
place of public amusement. Mrs Jamieson was the most fortunate,
for she fell asleep.
At length the eyes disappeared--the curtain quivered--one side went
up before the other, which stuck fast; it was dropped again, and,
with a fresh effort, and a vigorous pull from some unseen hand, it
flew up, revealing to our sight a magnificent gentleman in the
Turkish costume, seated before a little table, gazing at us (I
should have said with the same eyes that I had last seen through
the hole in the curtain) with calm and condescending dignity, "like
a being of another sphere," as I heard a sentimental voice
ejaculate behind me.
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