Every evening when Venus entered in her godlike nakedness the same effect was produced.

Then Muffat was seized with a desire to see; he put his eye to the peephole.

Above and beyond the glowing arc formed by the footlights the dark body of the house seemed full of ruddy vapor, and against this neutral-tinted background, where row upon row of faces struck a pale, uncertain note, Nana stood forth white and vast, so that the boxes from the balcony to the flies were blotted from view.

He saw her from behind, noted her swelling hips, her outstretched arms, while down on the floor, on the same level as her feet, the prompter's head--an old man's head with a humble, honest face--stood on the edge of the stage, looking as though it had been severed from the body.

At certain points in her opening number an undulating movement seemed to run from her neck to her waist and to die out in the trailing border of her tunic.