of the life of old Vauxhall. This, too, ran for some months and was succeeded on September 30th by “The Belle of the Ball,” which delighted many old frequenters of the Empire with its recollection of scenes from many of the earlier operatic favourites of the ’sixties and ’seventies, such as “Madame Angot,” “The Grand Duchess,” and other light operas, coming up to more recent productions, such as “The Belle of New York,” “The Geisha,” and others. [Illustration: Mlle. Adeline Génée] The production marked the _début_ of that brilliant young English dancer, Miss Phyllis Bedells, and also the end of Mlle. Génée’s unbroken ten years’ reign at the Empire Theatre, the tenth anniversary of her first appearance being celebrated on November 22nd, when the house was packed from floor to ceiling with a crowd whose growing enthusiasm culminated in a perfect tornado of applause on the falling of the curtain and something like a score of “calls”; the dancer having achieved by her personality and technique such a triumph as had not been known in London since the great days of Taglioni and the famous _Pas de Quatre_ of the ’forties. She left to carry her influence to America, but there were of course return visits which concern us not at present in dealing only with what may be styled her ten years’ reign. But in watching that decade closely with all its procession of successes, one thing there is that strikes one very forcibly. It was only the natural corollary of the previous decade before the advent of Mlle. Génée. For some twenty years the artistic influence of one mind had been, never obtrusive, but invariably evident; never obtrusive, that is, to the detriment of that balance of the arts which makes a perfect ballet; I mean the artistic influence of Mr. C. Wilhelm. Before the coming of Mlle. Génée they had had some good dancers and some great artistic successes; but there had hardly been, perhaps, quite that unity and perfection of _ensemble_ which the coming of a dancer of superb technique made possible, and which, it may be, enabled a designer of ballet, already of great experience and inspired always by high artistic motives--not only to aim at, but to _count on_, achieving just the effect at which he aimed. Theatrical art must always be a somewhat composite art, but its best achievements come from a perfect blending of artistic sympathies, forming a source of mutual inspiration. So, while the personality and technical accomplishment of Mlle. Génée must have proved a stimulus to the poetic imagination of an artist like Mr. Wilhelm, so, too, the famous Danish _danseuse_ could well afford to admit a debt of inspiration to the refined, sensitive and poetic art of Mr. Wilhelm, who has provided so invariably a worthy and gracious medium for her supreme art as dancer-mime. CHAPTER XXXIV THE EMPIRE 1907-1914