What Will He Do with It? — Volume 03Book 3 — CHAPTER III.Reading editionChapter navigation26 reading sectionsGo to chapterChoose a chapter…Front matterChapter IChapter IIChapter IIIChapter IVChapter VChapter VIChapter VIIChapter VIIIChapter IXChapter XChapter XIChapter XIIAct II. opens with a dialogue spoken off the stage. Invisible dramatis persona, that subsist, with airy tongues, upon the mimetic art of the Comedian. You understand that there is a vehement dispute going on. The dog must not be admitted into a part of the gardens where a more refined and exclusive section of the company have hired seats, in order to contemplate, without sharing, the rude dances or jostling promenade of the promiscuous merry-makers. Much hubbub, much humour; some persons for the dog, some against him; privilege and decorum here, equality and fraternity there. A Bonapartist colonel sees the cross on the soldier's breast, and, /mille tonnerres/! he settles the point. He pays for three reserved seats,—one for the soldier, one for the child, and a third for the dog. The veteran enters,—the child, not strong enough to have pushed through the crowd, raised on his shoulder, Rolla-like; the dog led by a string. He enters erect and warrior-like; his spirit has been roused by contest; his struggles have been crowned by victory. But (and here the art of the drama and the actor culminated towards the highest point)—but he now at once includes in the list of his dramatis persona the whole of his Gatesboro' audience. They are that select company into which he has thus forced his way. As he sees them seated before him, so calm, orderly, and dignified, /mauvaise honte/ steals over the breast more accustomed to front the cannon than the battery of ladies' eyes. He places the child in a chair abashed and humbled; he drops into a seat beside her shrinkingly; and the dog, with more self-possession and sense of his own consequence, brushes with his paw some imaginary dust from a third chair, as in the superciliousness of the well dressed, and then seats himself, and looks round with serene audacity.Chapter XIIIChapter XIVChapter XVChapter XVIChapter XVIIChapter XVIIIChapter XIXChapter XXChapter XXIChapter XXIICHAPTER, XXIII.Chapter XXIVPrevious chapter ←Book 3 — Chapter IINext chapter →Book 3 — Chapter IVAll chapters and sections (26)Opening pagesFront matterBook 3 · Chapters123456789101112Book 3 / Act 2 · Acts2Book 3 / Act 2 · Chapters13141516171819202122Book 3 / Act 2 · Other sectionsCHAPTER, XXIII.Book 3 / Act 2 · Chapters24Denoumente!◇POODLE!← CHAPTER II.CHAPTER IV. →