Three English ladies, Ellen, Rose, and Mrs.Bentson, figure in the play, but without dramatic purpose except to take part in some concerted music.

They are, indeed, so insignificant in all other respects that when the opera was given by Miss Van Zandt and a French company in London for the first time in 1885 they were omitted, and the excision was commended by the critics, who knew that it had been made.

The conversation of the women is all of the veriest stopgap character.

The maidens, Rose and Ellen, are English ladies visiting in the East; Mrs.Bentson is their chaperon.

All that they have to say is highly unimportant, even when true.