It outraged her modesty.
It could not be the practice of European women to bare themselves
so immodestly before men. It was only the evidence of her
visitor's own plump neck and shoulders that convinced her, and
she suffered herself to be led downstairs in an agony of self-
consciousness.
When we entered the box at the Empire, a troupe of female
acrobats were doing their turn. Carlotta uttered a gasp of
dismay, blushed burning red, and shrank back to the door. There
is no pretence about Carlotta. She was shocked to the roots of
her being.
"They are naked!" she said, quiveringly.
"For heaven's sake, explain," said I to Mrs. McMurray, and I beat
a hasty retreat to the promenade.
When I returned, Carlotta had been soothed down. She was
watching some performing dogs with intense wonderment and
delight. For the rest of the evening she sat spell-bound. The
exiguity of costume in the ballet caused her indeed to glance in
a frightened sort of way at Mrs. McMurray, who reassured her with
a friendly smile, but the music and the maze of motion and the
dazzle of colour soon held her senses captive, and when the
curtain came down she sighed like one awaking from a dream.
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