More proof that the Five Towns was a vast and seething
concentration of cities, and no longer a mere district where everybody
knew everybody!
The curtain rose, and as it did so a thunderous, crashing applause
of greeting broke forth; applause that thrilled and impressed and
inspired; applause that made every individual in the place feel right
glad that he was there. For the curtain had risen on the gigantic
attraction, which many members of the audience were about to see for
the fifth time that week; in fact, it was rumoured that certain men
of fashion, whose habit was to refuse themselves nothing, had attended
every performance of the gigantic attraction since the second house on
Monday.
The scene represented a restaurant of quiet aspect, into which entered
a waiter bearing a pile of plates some two feet high. The waiter
being intoxicated the tower of plates leaned this way and that as he
staggered about, and the whole house really did hold its breath in the
simultaneous hope and fear of an enormous and resounding smash. Then
entered a second intoxicated waiter, also bearing a pile of plates
some two feet high, and the risk of destruction was thus more than
doubled--it was quadrupled, for each waiter, in addition to the
risks of his own inebriety, was now subject to the dreadful peril of
colliding with the other.
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