their love is acknowledged, upon both sides--the preacher speaking
plainly; the girl, conscious of turpitude, shrinking from a spoken
avowal which yet her whole personality proclaims. Yielding to her
father's malign will she has consented to make one more manifestation of
curative power, to go through once more,--and for the last time,--the
mockery of a pretended fast. The scene is Lord Asgarby's house; the
patient is Lord Asgarby's daughter--an only child, cursed with
constitutional debility, the foredoomed victim of premature decline.
This frail creature has heard of Vashti and believes in her, and desires
and obtains her society. To Professor Dethick this is, in every sense, a
golden opportunity, and he insists that the starvation test shall be
thoroughly made. Lord Asgarby, willing to do anything for his idolised
daughter, assents to the plan, and his scientific friend, cynical
Professor Jopp, agrees, with the assistance of his erudite daughter, to
supervise the experiment. Vashti will fast for several days, and the
heir of Asgarby will then be healed by her purified and exalted
influence.

The principal scene of the play shows the exterior of an ancient, unused
tower of Asgarby House, in which Vashti is detained during the fast. The
girl is supposed to be starving. Her scampish father will endeavour to
relieve her. Miss Jopp is vigilant to prevent fraud. The patient is
confident. Judah, wishful to be near to the object of his adoration, has
climbed the outer wall and is watching, beneath the window, unseen, in
the warder's seat. The time is summer, the hour midnight, and the
irrevocable vow of love has been spoken. At that supreme instant, and
under conditions so natural that the picture seems one of actual life,
the sin of Vashti is revealed and the man who had adored her as an angel
knows her for a cheat. With a difference of circumstances that
situation--in the fibre of it--is not new. Many a lover, male and
female, has learned that every idol has its flaw. But the situation is
new in its dramatic structure. For Judah the discovery is a terrible
one, and the resultant agony is convulsive and lamentable. He takes,
however, the only course he could be expected to take: he must vindicate
the integrity of the woman whom he loves, and he commits the crime of
perjury in order to shield her reputation from disgrace.

What will a man do for the woman whom he loves? The attributes of
individual character are always to