ar: two ladies - one dark, one fair - with parasols; and two tall gents, one with a ukulele on a strap. They sang ''All the Girls are Lovely by the Seaside", very nicely; then the ukulele player did a solo, and the ladies lifted their skirts for a spot of soft-shoe dancing on the sand. For a first turn, they were good. We cheered them; and Tricky thanked us very graciously for our appreciation.
The next act was a comedian, the next a mentalist - a lady in evening dress and gloves, who stood blindfolded upon the stage while her husband moved among the audience with a slate, inviting people to write numbers and names upon it with a piece of chalk, for her to guess.
''Imagine the number floating through the air in flames of scarlet,'' said the man impressively, ''and searing its way into my wife''s brain, through her brow.'' We frowned and squinted at the stage, and the lady staggered a little, and raised her hands to her temples.
The Power," she said, ''it is very strong tonight. Ah, I feel it burning!''
After this there was an acrobatic troupe - three men in spangles who turned somersaults through hoops, and stood on one another''s shoulders. At the climax of their act they formed a kind of human loop, and rolled about the stage to a tune from the orchestra. We clapped at that; but it was too hot for acrobatics, and there was a general shuffling and whispering throughout this act, as boys were sent with orders to the bar, and returned with bottles and glasses and mugs that had to be handed, noisily, down the rows, past heads and laps and grasping fingers. I glanced at Alice: she had removed her hat and was fanning herself with it, and her cheeks were very red. I pushed my own little bonnet to the back of my head, leaned upon the rail before me with my chin upon my knuckles, and closed my eyes. I heard Tricky rise and call for silence with his gavel.