And the spell lasts, until suddenly, lights, which are not reflected from the stars, appear mirrored in the waters of the tiny lake. They shine from the red lamps of the victorias now being lighted. Night has fallen. It is time to go to the fair. [Illustration] [p057] [Illustration] CHAPTER III. PERMANENT SHOWS OR ENTRESORTS. The visit to the fair usually commences by the _entresorts_, or permanent shows. What are _entresorts_? I must again quote my friend Philip, the ancient mariner, whom I introduced to you just now, at the present moment editor of the _Tir de la Republique_, municipal councillor, and editorial secretary to the _Voyageur Forain_. [Illustration] “In the cant idiom used by the _petite banque_, we describe [p058] by the name of _entresort_ any booth which contains a permanent show without beginning or end, an establishment which _the public only walks through_. Waxworks are _entresorts_, so are exhibitions of dwarfs, monstrosities, learned fleas, and tattooed women. The booths which contain catch-pennies, somnambulists, conjuring tricks, fat women, and pretty girls, are also _entresorts_ if you like, but they are more frequently termed _Halls of Mystery_—I need scarcely tell you why. [Illustration] _Entresorts_ and Halls of Mystery always swarm in every fair. They are cheap amusements largely patronized by the [p059] crowd. And whilst the more important shows have changed all their entertainments and have introduced unlimited improvements into their theatres, the _entresort_ has not altered either its arrangements or its exhibition since the origin of time. It is always established in a canvas booth, sometimes provided with wooden benches lighted by four oil lamps; while the show is usually of an alarming nature—scenes from the [p060] Inquisition, executions, heads of celebrated murderers, exhibitions of monstrosities, of five-footed sheep, armless artists, calves’ heads, giants and dwarfs. No one should wonder at the fact that many people are more interested in the abnormal than in the beautiful. But this trait being once recognised, the dwarf is more wonderful than the giant; man is such a complicated machine, that in watching these microscopic creatures who gesticulate and speak like ourselves, we feel something of the same astonishment that would strike us if we found the seconds marked by a miniature watch which we could only see through a magnifying glass. For this reason the dwarf show is one of the most popular booths in the fair.