endid art is always to be
measured by the number of dollars which fall into the box-office. Take
Westervelt as a type. What ideals has he? None whatever, save to find a
play that will run forever and advertise itself."

She had dreams, too, it seemed. She glowed with her plans, and as she
timidly presented them Douglass perceived that the woman was entirely
unconscious of the false glamour, the whirling light and tumult, which
outsiders connected with her name. At the centre of the illumination she
sat looking out upon the glorified bill-boards, the gay shop windows,
the crowded auditoriums, a wholesome, kindly, intelligent woman, subject
to moods of discouragement like himself, unwilling to be a slave to a
money-grubber. Something in his face encouraged the story of her
struggles. She passed to her personal history while he listened as one
enthralled.

The actress fled, and the woman drew near. She looked into the man's
eyes frankly, unshrinkingly, with humor, with appeal. She leaned towards
him, and her face grew exquisitely tender and beautiful. "Oh, it was a
struggle! Mother kept boarders in order that Hugh and I might go to
school--didn't you, dear old muz?" She laid her hand on her mother's
knee, and the mother clasped it. "Father's health grew worse and worse,
and at last he died, and then I had to leave school to help earn our
living. I began to read for entertainments of various sorts. Father was
a Grand Army man, and the posts took an interest in my reading. I really
earned a thousand dollars the second year. I doubled that the next year,
and considered myself a great public success." She smiled. "Mother, may
I let Mr. Douglass see how I looked then?"

The mother nodded consent, and the great actress, after a few moments'
search, returned with a package of circulars, each bearing a piquant,
girlish face.

"There," she said, as she handed them to Douglass, "I felt the full
ecstasy of power when that picture was taken. In this I wore a new gown
and a new hat, and I was earning fifty dollars at each reading. My
success fairly bewildered me; but oh, wasn't it glorious! I took mother
out of a tenement and put her in a lovely little home. I sent Hugh to
college. I refurnished the house. I bought pictures and rugs, for you
know I continued to earn over two thousand a year. And what fun we had
in spending all that money!"

"But how did you reach the stage?" he asked.

She laughed. "By way of 'the Kerosene circu