And yet we can fill it to overflowing twice every night! And only
a few years ago there wasn't a decent music-hall in the entire
district!"
The word "Progress" flitted through his head.
It was not strictly true that the Empire was or could be filled to
overflowing twice every night, but it was true that at that particular
moment not a seat was unsold; and the aspect of a crowded auditorium
is apt to give an optimistic quality to broad generalizations.
Alderman Machin began instinctively to calculate the amount of money
in the house, and to wonder whether there would be a chance for
a second music-hall in the dissipated town of Hanbridge. He also
wondered why the idea of a second music-hall in Hanbridge had never
occurred to him before.
The Grand Circle was so called because it was grand. Its plush
fauteuils cost a shilling, no mean price for a community where seven
pounds of potatoes can be bought for sixpence, and the view of the
stage therefrom was perfect. But the Alderman's view was far from
perfect, since he had to peer as best he could between and above the
shoulders of several men, each apparently, but not really, taller than
himself. By constant slight movements, to comply with the movements
of the rampart of shoulders, he could discern fragments of various
advertisements of soap, motor-cars, whisky, shirts, perfume, pills,
bricks and tea--for the drop-curtain was down.
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