nstead of her supposed soul; but that did not
help matters much, or prevent our feeling that this treatment of
_Glandeville_ was no matter for laughter. And when I go and see a
production of Mr. HAWTREY'S I want matter for laughter and nothing else.

The best individual performances were those of Mr. LYSTON LYLE--really
excellent as a soldier of fortune--and Miss HELEN HAYE as _Lord
Glandeville's_ aunt who lays herself out to defeat the matrimonial
designs of the prodigy. Mr. CHARLES HAWTREY was not perhaps at his very
best as _Dick Gilder._ He wore an air of detachment and indulged his old
habit of looking over the heads of his stage-audience. He had too many
set speeches and was not always quite sure what word came next. Still
his mere presence is always irresistible.

As _Lord Glandeville_, Mr. VANE TEMPEST, most admirable of buffoons,
must have longed to be allowed to make us laugh, but solemnity was his
order of the day and he carried it out like a hero. As for Mr. WENMAN,
who played the partner that introduced _Lord Glandeville_ to the rest of
the "Lotus Publishing Company" (though how that refined nobleman ever
made the acquaintance of such a rough diamond is another of the "things
we'd like to know"), his face is a gift and he used its mobility to good
purpose.

Finally, Miss DOROTHY MINTO, as _Dorothy Gedge_, typewriter (with the
_nom de guerre_ of _Gedage_), was a little angular, and the motive of
her spasmodic excursions across the stage was not always apparent. But
she was extremely funny in her inimitable way when she had a chance of
exhibiting the unreasonableness of her selection as a mouthpiece of the
Muses. At the end, when she wonders if she could have been happy with
_Glandeville_ and knows that she would be happy with _Gilder_, she
showed an extremely pretty vein of sentiment. And here, too, I must
heartily compliment the author on a scene which threatened to be
commonplace and tedious, but was handled with a most engaging freshness
and a very unusual sense of what was just right and enough.

O. S.

* * * * *

[Illustration: POETRY COMMISSION-AGENTS FINDING A BACKER.

_Lord Giandeville_ Mr. VANE-TEMPEST.
_Brabazon Todd_ Mr. HENRY WENMAN.
_Richard Gilder_ Mr. CHARLES HAWTREY.]

* * * * *

_ARGUMENTUM AD FEMINAM._

Once, unless the t