![]() Long ago a lordly official had come down the pit queue and, with a gesture of his outstretched arm that seemed to guillotine hope, had said, "All after here standing room only." Having thus, with a mere contraction of his deltoid muscle, separated the sheep from the goats, he retired in Olympian state to the front of the theatre, where beyond the glass doors there was warmth and shelter. But at the Woffington both human strings tailed away apparently into infinity. At the Arena, which had a three weeks' ballet season, there were ten persons for the gallery and a long queue for the pit. At the Playbox there was no one the Playbox was exclusive, and ignored the existence of pits. At the Irving, five people spread themselves over the two steps and sacrificed in warmth what they gained in comfort Greek tragedy was not popular. ![]() Here and there, of course, there was no column. But no last trump could have so galvanized the weary attendants on Thespis and Terpsichore standing in patient column of four before the gates of promise. Grim sounds to preface an evening's amusement. It was between seven and eight o'clock on a March evening, and all over London the bars were being drawn back from pit and gallery doors. ![]()
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