Wagg, or some other
aide-de-camp of the noble Marquis, would be commissioned to go behind the
scenes, and express the great man's approbation, or make the inquiries
which were prompted by his lordship's curiosity, or his interest in the
dramatic art. He could not be seen by the audience, for Lord Steyne sate
modestly behind a curtain, and looked only towards the stage--but you
could know he was in the house, by the glances which all the
corps-de-ballet, and all the principal dancers, cast towards his box. I
have seen many scores of pairs of eyes (as in the Palm Dance in the
ballet of Cook at Otaheite, where no less than a hundred-and-twenty
lovely female savages in palm leaves and feather aprons, were made to
dance round Floridor as Captain Cook) ogling that box as they performed
before it, and have often wondered to remark the presence of mind of
Mademoiselle Sauterelle, or Mademoiselle de Bondi (known as la petite
Caoutchoue), who, when actually up in the air quivering like so many
shuttlecocks, always kept their lovely eyes winking at that box in which
the great Steyne sate.
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