all.” And in this respect the author is much nearer the mark than he himself imagines. No one, in fact, did notice that the first act had neither head nor tail. For it is so easy to overlook a little thing like that.
Ting-a-ling, the curtain rises for the second act. The author trips over cables and stage properties through the back stage, bangs into the horizon, and almost pitches headlong through a trap door. All at once he remembers that he can follow the play further from where he is, behind the scenes. But behind the scenes the technical staff is packed closely together like sardines; scene-shifters, tailors, seamstresses, dressers, mechanics, men in overalls, and their wives and aunts; the supers and their cousins and the friends of their cousins; and all kinds of curious, enigmatic habitués, all standing closely packed together watching the play on the stage, joking in loud voices, walking about on tiptoe across the creaking floors, quarrelling with the stage-manager, getting in the way of the players, creating all kinds of noises and
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