Cruel As The Grave Part 24

Their duty was to see that the men and maids did _theirs_, in showing the gentlemen and ladies to their dressing-rooms. They had both in turn been astonished, scandalized, and appalled by the grotesque figures that had pa.s.sed them. But their manner of expressing their sentiments was quite different.

Joseph Joy stared, wondered, and shook his head.

Miss Tabby sighed, whimpered, and moralized.

"I feel as if I had been drinking for a week, and had a lively sort of a nightmare! Here comes another ghoul, in a false face and black gown and hood! Now, how is anybody to tell what it is? Whether it is a tall woman or a short man? Gentleman, or lady, if your honor pleases?" said Joseph Joy, addressing himself to a black domino that just then came up.

"Gentleman," answered the unknown.

"Pa.s.s to the right, then, if you please, sir! Here Alick, show this gentleman in the black shroud to the gentlemen's dressing-room."

A trembling darky came forward and took charge of this terrific personage.

"Ah, my goodness! no good will ever come of this!" sighed Miss Tabby.

"No good? Yes there will too!" answered Joseph Joy, who was fond of contradiction. "All these bare-necked, bare-armed, and bare-legged people will get the pleurisy and be laid on the flat of their backs for three months, when they will have the opportunity of meditating on the iniquity of their ways! And won't that be good?"

"Yes, it will; and I hope it will be sanctified to their souls," sighed Miss Tabitha.

"And now here comes another bogie! Gentleman, or lady, please?" politely inquired the usher, as a red domino approached.

"Lady," softly murmured the domino.

"Pa.s.s the lady on to your maids, Miss Winterose! And here's another that certainly belongs to your department too! And another, and another, and a whole dozen of them!" exclaimed Mr. Joy, as a troupe of bayaderes, gipsies, peasants, court ladies, et caetera, filed up.

All these Miss Winterose pa.s.sed on to Delia, with directions to show them to the ladies' dressing-rooms. And then she turned to Mr. Joy with a deep sigh, whimpering:

"Ah! Joseph, where do all these people expect to die when they go to?

I--I mean, to go to when they die?"

"They don't trouble themselves about that, I reckon," said contradictory Joe.

"Ah! but it is written that we shall not make to ourselves the likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. And here are all these people making of themselves--" Miss Tabby stopped and snivelled, and then stopped again to wipe a tear from the tip of her nose.

"Well, what?" demanded antagonistic Joe. "What are these people making of themselves? Nothing that breaks the first commandment, for surely you don't mean to say that they make of themselves the image of anything in the heavens above, the earth below, or the waters under the earth, do you?"

"No, Joseph; but I was mistrusting as they had made themselves up into images of something in t' other place."

"With the Evil One for a pattern, eh? And here he comes, sure enough.

Talk of the d---- and you know what happens," muttered Joe Joy, as a most appalling apparition approached. It was a tall, thin figure, clad in a tight-fitting black suit, that clung close to the skin from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet and the palms of the hands; skull-cap, mask, jacket, sleeves, trousers, shoes and gloves seeming to be knit all of one piece, or else very artistically joined together.

Crowning the black brows were two tall white horns; tipping the black fingers were long white talons; terminating the black feet were cloven white hoofs. Crimson gla.s.s goggles over the eyes gave the look of burning coals; and by some "devilish cantrap strange," some trick in chemistry, at least, little jets of flame appeared to issue from the mouth and nostrils of the mask.

"Heaven save us! There's no mistaking his s.e.x, or ident.i.ty either,"

gasped Mr. Joe, backing himself away from this diabolical figure until he was stopped by the wall, from which he cried out, "Here, Jerry, show the--Enemy--into the gentleman's dressing-room."

The shuddering boy, shaking in every limb, shrank away and merely pointed out the door of the dressing-room.

Miss Tabby had merely time to raise her hands and eyes in mute appeal to heaven, before a shoal of new arrivals--"flower girls," "strawberry girls," "match girls," "morning stars," "evening stars," "springs,"

"summers," "nuns," "bacchantes," etc., claimed her attention; while a troupe of "brigands," "monks," "troubadours," "clowns," "harlequin,"

"kings," "crusaders," et caetera, demanded the guidance of Mr. Joy.

And after this thicker and faster they came, crowding one group behind another, until the ushers were nearly demented. When drove after drove had divided and pa.s.sed to the right or the left, that is, to the ladies'

or gentlemen's dressing-rooms, and the stream began to slacken a little, so that they could distinguish individuals, Mr. Joy in turn received and pa.s.sed a "puritan preacher," a "cavalier soldier," a "Highlander," a "knight," a "minstrel," the "vailed prophet," a "Switzer," a "Chinese mandarin," a "Russian serf," and black, white, and gray, red, yellow, and blue dominoes, he suddenly exclaimed:

"Good Lord deliver us! What's _that_?"

Miss Tabby, who, to her infinite disgust, had been receiving and pa.s.sing any number of "fairies," "fisher girls," "soubrettes," "sultanas,"

et caetera, turned around, and in a quavering voice, inquired:

"What's _what_?"

"Why, _that_!" shuddered Joe, pointing to a ghastly figure that was standing quite still, a few paces from where they stood, trembling.

"It's a skeleton! Oh, my goodness! how did ever IT get here?"

"Yes, it _is_ a skeleton! Oh, this is too horrible!" gasped Joe, shrinking up against the wall. And his female companion clung close to him.

Meanwhile the "skeleton" stalked towards them.

We, reader, have seen the figure before. But so distinctly was the skeleton of the human body painted in white upon that tight-fitting black suit, that the illusion was perfect; and the wonder was not great that the two poor ignorant servants trembled and gasped, and shrank back.

"Why, if you were not afraid of the Devil, why should you shrink from Death?" demanded the stranger:

"Grinning horribly a ghastly smile."

"I--was not--afraid; only it gives one such a turn!" replied Joe, with chattering teeth.

"Then direct me to a dressing-room," ordered the stranger.

"But--are you--a gentleman's skeleton, or a lady's?" gasped Joe.

"I am neither. I am Death," curtly replied the stranger.

"Lord save us!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Miss Tabby.

"Are you going to direct me to a dressing-room?"

"Yes, sure, as soon as I know what sort of a one you want. Are you a gentleman's death, or a lady's?" faltered Joe, who could by no means command his nerves.

"I am a lady's death!" replied the stranger, in a tone so grim that Miss Tabby e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed:

"Heaven have mercy on us!"

Joe was about to direct the stranger to the ladies' dressing-rooms, when his attention was suddenly diverted by the arrival of a crowd of "knights," "Indians," "Welsh bards," "grisettes," "Greek slaves,"

et caetera, who demanded immediate service. The usher divided them according to their s.e.xes, and then noticed that the ghastly figure of "Death"

joined the gentlemen's party and accompanied them to their dressing-room.