230 7

what an cnviable post for a stage manager ! No discontented “stars,” nor fault-finding critics, nor ill-manncered audience, but the most doctle and manageable company of lace-bespangled ladies and gentlemen, and the politest of fashionable audiences, com-

MLLE. SYLVIE LECONTE (48).

posed of becomingly-attired Court ladies in the stalls.

In such a company the splendour of Mlle. Porphyrin Brocard’s frock would have assuredly entitled her to the position of premicre danseuse (47). She was one of the celebrated sisters and, according to the book, afterwards married the Duke of Lorraine. The Princess has arrayed her in a short silver gauze petticoat and tight white satin bodice with silver spangles : a gay green garland is on her head, and a gold chain, to which hangs a beautifully- made pocket of white and oold beads, encireles her slen- der waist. There 1s an apron worn by one of the dolls dressed by the Queen—as Mlle. Sylvie Teconte, the dancer, who 1s said to have come sccond to Taglioni, and who married Prince Poni- atowsky -— which won my deepest admiration. It might have been woven in clfland, so fragile and fanry- like is the white arcophane of which it is wrought, and

MILLE.

STRAND

7).

MLLE. PORPHYRIN BROCARD

PROCHE (43).

AAGAZINE.

so exquisite are the curves and so sure the stitching of blue, violet and grass-green silks with which it is cmbellished (48).

But the number of dancers 1s infinite ; there 1s Mlle. Proche (43) as she appeared i Un Jour a Naples,” n the brightest of yellow silk skirts, with prunc-coloured trimmings round the bottom; and bodice also of prunc colour. "T'he sleeves are of the lightest and most delicate white lace. The hittle table at which she 1s scen standing in our tHustration below 1s a farthful model in mahogany of the tables in fashion at that period. The tiny chair s made of cardboard, covered with

light silk by the Princess. Another such chair 1s to be scen in the illustration which represents Miss

Poole (46) ; and again in “lLa Son- nambula” as the neatest and most hewitching of peasant damsels i a short white silk skirt trimmed with scarlet ribbons, a scarlet cloth stomacher, and a provoking big- brimmed hat of purple velvet and scarlet ribbons (40); Mlle. Augusta dancing through the popular “ La Bayaderc” (37), in white tarlatan and silver; Sylvie Leconte (44), this time in blue satin and pink and ycllow rOSCcs.

A member of the “superior sex” dressed by the Princess Victoria is M. Albert (52), probably the celebrated ballet master of the King’s Theatre, whose costume puzzles me somewhat, as it seems to have stopped at a very carly stage of the proceedings. Hec 1is a particularly long, and 1if onc may usc the word, “Dbony,” creature, and 1s airilly clad in a single garment made of fine white linen. If there were not other circumstances (to which I shall allude in a moment) it would be proper to assume--as the garment comes but a short way below the waist — that other (for- votten) garments were 1n- tended to supplement it But on a closer inspection 1 noticed to my surprisc that the shift was neatly trimmed at the bottom with rows of the narrowest and palest of blue ribbon, whilst a bluc silken sash encircled the waist,