The party then adjourns to another apartment, where coffee is served and where it is frequently joined by other visitors, chiefly men, who come without particular invitation, to pay their respects or to converse on business, in the manner of a morning call, and who prolong their stay as the movements of the first party indicate: for an invitation to dinner by no means necessarily implies that you are to spend the evening or any part of it at the house or that the family has no other engagement as soon as dinner is concluded and the guests have taken their coffee and liquors. As the dinner is early, being always between twelve and five, the remainder of the evening is employed in various pursuits. A drive in the Prater or to some place of public resort, a visit to the theatre, or a succession of the calls just described, employ the evening; or, if the dinner has been very early, the party resumes the occupations and business of the day. The time and duration of the performances at the theatres are very convenient. They begin about six and conclude a little after nine. The greatest decorum prevails during the representation, the police-military, that is police-officers, in a particular kind of livery and wearing swords, being stationed in all the avenues. Thus a person going with a wish to hear the play is not disappointed by those brawls which scarcely ever fail to interrupt the performance in our English theatres; nor is there any part of the house to which a party of the most delicate females might not resort with the greatest propriety. The theatrical performances are continued throughout the whole year, with the exception of the days prohibited by the Catholic calendar, on many of which, however, concerts, public rehearsals, and a species of exhibition called a _Tableau_ are permitted. The latter amusement, being scarcely known in this country, requires some notice. The object of these exhibitions is, to represent by groups of living figures the compositions of celebrated sculptors or painters. With this view that part of the apartment or theatre, beyond which the _Tableau_ is to be placed, is darkened, and on raising a curtain, the figures are discovered dressed in the costume which the painter has given them, and firmly fixed in the attitude prescribed by his pencil. The light is skilfully introduced and other objects arranged so as to give as nearly as possible the effect of the original painting. After some time the curtain drops to give the performers time to rest, and to relieve themselves from the painful attitudes which they are frequently obliged to preserve; and the curtain again drawn up discovers them still in their characteristic postures. When the spectators are supposed to be satisfied with one picture another is introduced, and thus several are exhibited in succession. This generally forms only part of the evening’s amusement, and is either accompanied by a theatrical performance, or if in private by dancing or music.