THE THEATRE.
The next week the children's teacher said that he would take them to
the "Theatre," for they had behaved so well! I thought differently.
There was nothing talked of but the "Theatre" from morning till night;
and I am sorry to say that this was a subject of dispute too. One said
they would get the first bill and have theirs read through first, and
the other was going to hear the bell jingle first, and sit in the front
seat; one was going to be looked at the most, and be dressed first; and
the other was going to get into the carriage first, and get the best
seat, and so on. The day at length arrived. I felt happy, too, though
there was such dispute, for I remembered when I went to the "Opera"
with my late mother, Celeste Belmont, and how I enjoyed myself. The
children were in high spirits, and kept incessantly talking of what
a nice time they would have if they were only there now. I longed to
tell them to have a little patience, but I was afraid I should get my
neck broke if I did so. At length the maid arrived to dress them, and
in their hurry to get up stairs before each other, Madge tumbled down
stairs, but did not hurt herself much. Such dressing, why you would
almost think their clothes flew off, as did their buttons, in their
hurry to get dressed before each other. Martha got dressed first, and
then she went for me. I was in a pink muslin, with blue roses in my
hair, and my mother thought I looked splendidly. We lived out of town,
and had to ride into the city, so we had a very nice ride. We went
to the "Covent Garden Theatre." It is a splendid place, but not so
pretty as the "Royal Italian Opera House," where I went with my mother,
Celeste Belmont. There was some scrambling to get the front seat
between Madge and Martha, but at last it was settled. We sat in a stage
box, which was beautiful. The play began. There was once a beautiful
young girl, and she had two lovers; she liked one, and the other she
didn't like; and there were meetings, and tumbling-down places, and all
that sort of thing. At last this pretty young girl married the lover
she liked, and the other lover went away, when I tumbled on to the
stage in a bouquet which they threw, though they did not know that they
had thrown me.