“Come in!” cried a voice inside.

He found himself on the threshold of a room such as he had never seen before.  There was no carpet, and the little furniture it contained was heaped with masses of heterogeneous clothes.  Two looking-glasses were fixed against the walls, and in front of one of them was a sort of shelf, or dresser, covered with small pots of some ungodly looking materials of a pasty appearance—­rouge, grease-paint, cocoa-butter, and heaven knows what beside—­with black stuff, white stuff, yellow stuff, paint-brushes, gum-pots, powder-puffs, and discoloured rags spread about in not very picturesque confusion.  In a corner of this engaging boudoir, sitting in an armchair with a glass of liquor beside him and smoking a strong cigar, was the most extraordinary and repulsive object he had ever clapped his eyes on.  The face, daubed and glistening with an unsightly coating of red, white, and yellow-ochre paint, and adorned with protuberant bristles by way of eyebrows, appeared twice its natural dimensions.  The throat was bare to the collar-bones.  A huge wig covered the head, falling over the shoulders; while the whole was encircled by a great wreath of pink calico roses, the back of which, just under the nape of the neck, was fastened by a glittering pinchbeck tassel.  The arms were nude, their natural growth of dark hair being plastered over with white chalk, which had a singularly ghastly effect; a short-skirted, low-necked gold frock, cut like a little girl’s, partly covered the body, and over this were draped coarse folds of scarlet, purple, and white, with tinsel stars along the seams, and so disposed as to display to fullest advantage the brawny calves of the tragedian.

“Great Scott, if it isn’t young Dot-and-carry-One!” exclaimed Mr Sardanapalus Buskin, as the slim figure of Austin, in his simple evening-dress, appeared at the entrance.  “Come in, young gentleman, come in.  So you’ve come to beard the lion in his den, have you?  Well, it’s kind of you not to have forgotten.  You’re welcome, very welcome.  That was a very pleasant little meeting we had the other day, over there in the fields.  And what do you think of the performance?  Been in front?”

“Oh, yes—­thank you so very much,” said Austin, hesitatingly.  “It is awfully kind of you to let me come and see you like this.  I’ve never seen anything of the sort in all my life.”

“Ah, I daresay it’s a sort of revelation to you,” said Sardanapalus, with good-humoured condescension.  “Have a drop of whiskey-and-water?  Well, well, I won’t press you.  And so you’ve enjoyed the play?”

“The whole thing has interested me enormously,” replied Austin.  “It has given me any amount to think of.”