nd Mr. Whiting came upon the scene.

"When Chevrial, finding himself alone with Tirandel and Laubaniere,
exposed his amusingly cynical views of life and society, some attention
was paid to a remarkable portrait of a polished, but coarse, gay, though
aging, voluptuary. The scene was short and he was soon off, though not
without a little impudent touch, in passing the maid in the doorway, that
did not slip unnoticed. The dramatic disclosures which followed brought
the act to a close with applause that augured well. Henri, Marcelle, and
Mme. De Targy were called forward enthusiastically.

"The second act revealed the Baron's chambers. With the exception of two
minutes, he was on the stage until the curtain fell. The Baron's effort,
so precisely detailed, to reach and raise the dumb-bells from the floor;
the inveterate libertine's interview with shrewd Rosa, the danseuse, who
took the tips he expected would impoverish her and thus put her in his
power, for the purpose of playing them the other way: the biting
deliberation of his interview with his good Baroness and Henri, who comes
to ruin himself to save his family's honor--all held the audience with a
new sensation. As he pushed his palsied arms into his coat and pulled
himself fairly off his feeble feet in his effort to button it, turned up
to his door humming like a preying bumble-bee, faced slowly about again,
his piercing little pink eyes darting with anticipation, and off the
trembling old lips droned the telling speech: 'I wonder how his pretty
little wife will bear poverty. H'm! We shall see'--the curtain fell to
applause which was for the newcomer alone. He had interested the audience
and was talked about between the acts.

"Mr. Palmer rushed back to his dressing-room and found him studiously
adding new touches to his make-up for the next act. 'Young man,' exclaimed
the manager, 'do you know you're making a hit?' 'That's what I'm paid
for,' replied Mansfield, without lowering the rabbit's foot.

"The third act was largely Marcelle's. The Baron was on for an episodic
interval, but succeeded, in that he did not destroy the impression already
created.

"The fourth act revealed a magnificent banquet hall with a huge table
laden with crystal, silver, snowy linens, flowers, and lights. At the top
of a short stairway at the back was a gallery and an arched window through
which one looked up the green aisle of the Champs-Elysee to the Arc de
Triomphe, dimly visible in