RUDOLPH. "Take this collar. Behold these stripes painted upon it. Whatever you wish you shall have at the price of five years of your life. A stripe will vanish each time your wish is gratified. (Aside.) The stripes are only cloth, you know, and you can pull 'em off when your back is turned to the audience. Is it a bargain?"
ULRIC. "It 'er is." (Malignant crash from the orchestra.)
RUDOLPH. "ULLERIC, 'tis well. Now thou shall behold our sports."
Enter ballet girls, dressed in red gaiters and torches. They dance the Demon Cancan, waving their torches and scattering the flames. Old Gentleman, in the front row hears such charming little asides as, "Drat you, MARY SMITH, you've burnt my hand." "I'll slap your face, Miss, if you step on my foot again." "O NELLY! my hair's a-coming down."
Curtain finally falls upon a blaze of light and a bewildering wealth of legs.
Old Gentleman, in front row. "Well, he! he! that's pretty good; he! he! Devilish pretty girls some of 'em; he! he!"
Virtuous Matron. "My dear, isn't it shameful. I never saw any thing so disgusting."
Sceptical Husband. "Then perhaps we'd better go at once."
Virtuous Matron. "N—no. I'll sit through one more act, and see if it gets any worse."
Fast Young Man. "They're all padded, you know. You can't feel sure about one of 'em. There were gals in the Crook who used to pad their's from here to here"—(adds explanatory pantomime.)