Voces Populi

Scene-A Suburban Hall. The Performance has not yet begun. The Audience is limited and low-spirited, and may perhaps number-including the Attendants-eighteen. The only people in the front seats are a man in full evening dress, which he tries to conceal under a caped coat, and two Ladies in plush opera-cloaks. Fog is hanging about in the rafters, and the gas-stars sing a melancholy dirge. Each casual cough arouses dismal echoes. Enter an intending Spectator, who is conducted to a seat in the middle of an empty row. After removing his hat and coat, he suddenly thinks better-or worse-of it, puts them on again, and vanishes hurriedly.