Page:Parodyoniolanthe.djvu/34

QUEEN—The comfort of your passengers must be your primary consideration. (Very solemnly.) You will also be forced to run your trains according to your advertised time-table.

ALL—(Shriek)—Oh, spare us! spare us!

QUEEN—And now depart. When next your council meets, Strephon will be one of you.

(Slow music. G. P. A.'s bow to Strephon. Business, etc. Curtain.)

ACT II.

Scene—Interior of the Chicago & Alton Railway at Chicago. Luxurious surroundings on all sides. Ticket office opens down to the inlaid mosaic floor. Handsome divans for passengers engaged in the purchase of tickets. At the gate, waiting for passengers as they go through in swarms, is Willis, a handsome man, like all the other servants of this road, and also, like them, he is clothed in an expensive and becoming uniform.

WILLIS— (Sings.)
I often think it 's comical,
How nature always does incline
To place the best of all its boys
That 's born into this world of mine
In the road that only such employs—
The great Chicago & Alton Line.

(Enter Fairies and G. P. A.'s.)

LEILA—(Who has been attracted by the officers)—Charming persons, are they not?

CEILA—They do very well, considering whom they work for. In Alton uniforms they would look very well.

LORD BEESEEKEW—Well, we have done our best to imitate Alton, but it seems to be a failure. Why not stop this disgusting protégé of yours

CEILA—(Crying)—We can't stop him. The road has made too much headway. It is harder to kill than a Presidential boom in Indiana. (Aside.) How beautiful they all are!

(Enter Queen, who has overheard last remark.)