Back The Metropolis
Chapters (24)
  1. Feature
  2. CHAPTER I
  3. CHAPTER II
  4. CHAPTER III
  5. CHAPTER IV
  6. CHAPTER V
  7. CHAPTER VI
  8. CHAPTER VII
  9. CHAPTER VIII
  10. CHAPTER IX
  11. CHAPTER X
  12. CHAPTER XI
  13. CHAPTER XII
  14. CHAPTER XIII
  15. CHAPTER XIV
  16. CHAPTER XV
  17. CHAPTER XVI
  18. CHAPTER XVII
  19. CHAPTER XVIII
  20. CHAPTER XIX
  21. CHAPTER XX
  22. CHAPTER XXI
  23. You are reading a Deluxe Edition:
  24. Copyright

The costumes were of two sorts: one fantastic, supposed to represent the East, and the other a kind of reductio ad absurdum of fashionable garb. The leading man wore a "natty" outing-suit, and strutted with a little cane; his stock-in-trade was a jaunty air, a kind of perpetual flourish, and a wink that suggested the cunning of a satyr. The leading lady changed her costume several times in each act; but it invariably contained the elements of bare arms and bosom and back, and a skirt which did not reach her knees, and bright-coloured silk stockings, and slippers with heels two inches high. Upon the least provocation she would execute a little pirouette, which would reveal the rest of her legs, surrounded by a mass of lace ruffles. It is the nature of the human mind to seek the end of things; if this woman had worn a suit of tights and nothing else, she would have been as uninteresting as an underwear advertisement in a magazine; but this incessant not-quite-revealing of herself exerted a subtle fascination. At frequent intervals the orchestra would start up a jerky little tune, and the two "stars" would begin to sing in nasal voices some words expressive of passion; then the man would take the woman about the waist and dance and swing her about and bend her backward and gaze into her eyes - actions all vaguely suggestive of the relationship of sex. At the end of the verse a chorus would come gliding on, clad in any sort of costume which admitted of colour and the display of legs; the painted women of this chorus were never still for an instant - if they were not actually dancing, they were wriggling their legs, and jerking their bodies from side to side, and nodding their heads, and in all other possible ways being "lively."