A Parisian Romance — page 90: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A PARISIAN ROMANCE. 8} moment, the door swung back, and the two gentle- ~ men passed through to the regions behind the scenes. : Threading the mazes of ropes and scenery in the midst of hurrying carpenters and stage hands, they finally reached their destination—the Foyer de la Danse. It was a long, low room, full of ballet girls in abbreviated skirts and with their necks and arms covered with cloaks and shawls as a protection against the draught. Some of them, grasping a brass rod which ran along one side of the room about four feet from the floor, were practicing exer- cises to render the muscles more flexible, others were chatting among themselves, or bantering young fellows in full dress, who, by some means, had obtained admittance to the sacred precincts. . Seated on low benches were a lot of old women, the mothers, real or hired for the sake of respectability, of the young ladies of the corps de ballet. Their hands were busy with knitting work and their tongues were clicking in unison over the last scan- dal of the coulisses. At one end of the room, wrapped in a magnificent fur-lined mantel which covered her from neck to foot and completely hid her ballet costume, stood Rosa Guerin, talking to a distinguished-looking man with white hair and mustache, who looked like a cabinet minister, but who was really a re- | porter for the “Figaro.” Gomichbooksreo im