"Perhaps she really likes it that way," Twink whispered to Tom.
At the end of the meal, King Ticket rose and addressed the assemblage solemnly: "The moment has come for which we have prepared these many days. We will now pass into the theater for the first performance of the new play."
No one spoke. This, apparently was an important moment. The only sound in the vast dining room was the rustling of the ladies' skirts and the patter of footsteps on the alabaster floor.
Queen Curtain took Twink by the hand, and Tom and Twiffle followed into the theater. It was brilliantly lighted as the Lords and Ladies settled into their seats. A few of them hurried backstage—they were the ones who worked the scenery and otherwise aided in the presentation of the play. Twink, Tom, and Twiffle found themselves seated in the Royal Box with King Ticket and Queen Curtain.
The houselights dimmed, the curtains went up, and with no preliminaries the play was under way.
Two actors walked woodenly forward on the stage. They were dressed in what Twink and Tom could tell was supposed to be armor, but was obviously kitchen utensils strung together and about to fall off. From the words they were saying, the two knights seemed to be getting very angry at each other. But they looked at the audience, instead of looking at each other, and spoke their lines in a dazed, unexcited way as though they were talking in their sleep. Impossible as it seemed from their lack of action, it became apparent that they were so enraged they had decided to fight out in a tournament, their quarrel over a lady. Oh, yes, there she was at the side of the stage, paying no attention at all to the knights.
The tournament scene came next. The knights in their pots and pans were mounted on extraordinary horses. Each was made up of two men covered with tufted candlewick bedspreads. They too moved about the stage in a slow and sleepy way. The lady who had inspired the fight looked on from her box seat at the side of the stage, waving her handkerchief. But it had slipped her mind apparently that it was the tournament she was watching, and she looked straight at the audience and listlessly waved her handkerchief as if trying to attract the attention of anyone who might care to wave back at her.