of Miss Lotta, whose innocent
deviltries were bringing her a fortune, and when, in response to a
"call," instead of appearing, Miss Lotta thrust her foot and ankle out
beyond the curtain and wriggled them at the delighted crowd, poor Mrs.
P---- drew her hand across her forehead and said, in bewildered tones:
"But--I don't understand!"

No, she could not understand, and Miss Lotta had not yet faced New York,
hence John Brougham, the witty, wise, and kindly Irish gentleman, had not
yet had his opportunity of summing up the brilliant and erratic star, as
he did later on in these words: "Act, acting, actress? what are you
thinking of? she's no actress, she's--why, she's a little dramatic
cocktail!" which was a delicious Broughamism and truthful withal.

But that sad night, when Mrs. P---- first set her feet in the path of
obscurity, I took to myself a lesson, and said: "While I live, I will
move. I will not stand still in my satisfaction, should success ever come
to me--but will try to keep my harness bright by action, in at least an
effort to keep abreast with the world, for verily, verily, it does
move!"

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXTH

Mr. Lawrence Barrett the Brilliant and his Brother Joseph the
Unfortunate.

There were few stars with whom I took greater pleasure in acting than
with Mr. Lawrence Barrett. I sometimes wonder if even now this profession
really knows what great reason it has to be proud of him. He was a man
respected by all, admired by many, and if loved but by few, theirs was a
love so profound and so tender it amply sufficed.

We are a censorious people, and just as our greatest virtue is generosity
in giving, so our greatest fault is the eagerness with which we seek out
the mote in our neighbor's eye, without feeling the slightest desire for
the removal of the beam in our own eye. Thus one finds that the first and
clearest memory actors have of Mr. Barrett is of his irascible temper and
a certain air of superiority, not of his erudition, of the high position
he won socially as well as artistically, of the almost Titanic struggle
of his young manhood with adverse circumstances.

Nor does that imply the slightest malice on their part. Actors, as a
family trait, have a touch of childishness about them which they come by
honestly enough. We all know the farther we get from infancy the weaker
the imagination grows. Now it is imagination that makes the man an actor,
so it is not wonderful if with the