_Before Supper the proceedings are rather decorous than lively; the dancers in fancy dress forming a very decided minority, and appearing uncomfortably conscious of their costume. A Masker got up as a highly realistic Hatstand, hobbles painfully towards a friend who is disguised as a huge Cannon._ _The Hatstand_ (_huskily, through a fox's mask in the centre of his case, to the Cannon_). Just a trifle slow up to the present, eh? _The Cannon_ (_shifting the carriage and wheels to a less uncomfortable position._) Yes, it don't seem to me as lively as usual--_drags_, don't you know. _The Hatstand_ (_heroically_). Well, we must wake 'em up, that's all--put a little _go_ into the thing! [_They endeavour to promote gaiety by crawling through the crowd, which regards them with compassionate wonder._ _A Black Domino_ (_to a Clown, who is tapping the barometer on the Hatstand's back_). Here, mind how you damage the furniture, SAMMY, it may be here on the hire system. [_The Hatstand executes a cumbrous caper by way of repartee, and stumbles on._ _A Folly_ (_to a highly respectable Bedouin in a burnous and gold spectacles_). Well, all I can say is, you don't seem to me to behave much _like_ an Arab! _The Bedouin_ (_uneasily, as he waltzes with conscientious regularity_). Don't I? How _ought_ I to behave then? _The Folly_. _I_ should have thought you'd jump about and howl, the way Bedouins _do_ howl. _You_ know! _The Bed._ (_dubiously_). Um--well, you see, my dear, I--I don't feel _up_ to that sort of thing--_before_ supper. _The Folly_ (_losing all respect for him_). No--nor yet after it. I expect you've told some old four-wheel caravan to come and fetch you home early, and you'll turn into your little tent at the usual time--that's the sort of wild Bedouin _you_ are! Don't let me keep you. [_She leaves him._ _The Bed._ (_alone_). If she only knew the absolute _horror_ I have of making myself conspicuous, she wouldn't expect it! _Mephistopheles_ (_to a Picador_). This was the only thing I could get to go in. How do you think it suits me? _The Picador_ (_with candour_). Well, I must say, old fellow, you _do_ look a beast! [_Mephisto appears wounded._ _A Masker_ (_with his face painted brown, and in a costume of coloured paper decorated with small boxes and packets, to a Blue Domino_). You see what _I_ am, don't you? The Parcels Post! Had a _lot_ of trouble thinking it out. Look at my face, for instance, I made _that_ up, with string--marks and all, to look like a brown-paper parcel. _The Blue Domino_. Pity you haven't got something _inside_ it, isn't it? _The Parcels Post_ (_feebly_). Don't you be too sharp. And it really is a first-rate idea. All these parcels now--I suppose there must be fifty of 'em at least-- _The Blue Domino_. Are there? Well, I wish you'd go and get sorted somewhere else. I haven't time for it myself.