244 AMUSEMENTS, 



Ambiguities Theatre, we feel in our hearts that 

 this is too much, and that we can get along very 

 well indeed nowadays without amusements. The 

 ex-Khedive of Egypt, to be sure — if report speaks 

 true — was a sensible tliou!]:li somewliat luxurious 

 man who knew how to combine middle-aged com- 

 fort and youthful love of excitement in a lordly 

 fashion only possible to an Oriental despot. He 

 had his theatre built just next door to his draw- 

 ing-room., and that again to his dining-room ; and 

 the players — or artistes, as we ought to call them 

 nowadays — were compelled to hold themselves 

 always in readiness after dinner, in case his High- 

 ness should wish to listen to the drama or the 

 opera. As soon as dessert was finished, the luxuri- 

 ous Viceroy would stroll carelessly into the adjoin- 

 ing apartment, compose himself peacefully in his 

 easy-chair, light his cigarette to promote diges- 

 tion, and give the word to one of liis attendants, 

 "Let us have some Offenbach I " In ten minutes 

 the curtain which formed one side of the saloon 

 would rise u})on the Grand Duchess of Gerolstein, 

 and the Khedive would sit solitary, or surrounded 

 only by his suite, watching the progress of tlie 

 whole piece from the comfortable cushions of his 

 own arm-chair. That was a princely Eastern way 

 of taking one's amusements quietl}', and not to 

 be easily compassed in our Western societies. 

 Whether the actors and actresses found this sort 



