Child. Which side would have won if it had been a real battle?
Uncle. I really couldn't undertake to say, my boy.
Child. But which do you think would have won?
Uncle. I suppose the side that fought best.
Child. But which side was that? (The Uncle begins to find that the society of an intelligent Nephew entails too severe a mental strain to be frequently cultivated.)
THE OPERA-GOER'S DIARY.
Monday 23.—Operatic world all agog to hear, and to see, Le Prophète. First appearance for many years. Great things expected of JEAN DE RESZKÉ as Jean of Leyden, and Mlle. RICHARD as Fides. Great expectations not disappointed. Scene in Cathedral magnificent as a spectacle. But scene in Cathedral between JEAN and his unhappy mother still grander as acting. Le Prophète is remarkable too, as being an Opera without Mlle. BAUERMEISTER in it. Skating scene, with a nice ballet, rather a frost. "Not sufficient go in it," observes veteran Opera-goer, with book in his hand, dated eighteen hundred and sixty something, containing a cast of characters which, he says, though he doesn't show me the book, comprises the names of MARIO, GRISI, VIARDOT-GARCIA, and HERR FORMES. A more veterany veteran tells me that GRISI and VIARDOT never played together in this, but that GRISI succeeded VIARDOT as Fides.
