It was only in the heart of this enormous structure, on a few square yards of stage, that a faint glow suggested the light cast by some lantern nailed up in a railway station.

It made the actors look like eccentric phantoms and set their shadows dancing after them.

The remainder of the stage was full of mist and suggested a house in process of being pulled down, a church nave in utter ruin.

It was littered with ladders, with set pieces and with scenery, of which the faded painting suggested heaped-up rubbish.

Hanging high in air, the scenes had the appearance of great ragged clouts suspended from the rafters of some vast old-clothes shop, while above these again a ray of bright sunlight fell from a window and clove the shadow round the flies with a bar of gold.
Meanwhile actors were chatting at the back of the stage while awaiting their cues.