r a recitation to the gallery. I was taught
that that was the legitimate method."

The word touched off all the dynamite in Mr. Goble. Of all things in
the theatre he detested most the "legitimate method." His idea of
producing was to instruct the cast to come down to the footlights and
hand it to 'em. These people who looked up-stage and talked to the
audience through the backs of their necks revolted him.

"Legitimate! That's a hell of a thing to be! Where do you get that
legitimate stuff? You aren't playing Ibsen!"

"Nor am I playing a knockabout vaudeville sketch."

"Don't talk back at me!"

"Kindly don't shout at _me_! Your voice is unpleasant enough without
your raising it."

Open defiance was a thing which Mr. Goble had never encountered
before, and for a moment it deprived him of breath. He recovered it,
however, almost immediately.

"You're fired!"

"On the contrary," said Mr. Hill, "I'm resigning." He drew a
green-covered script from his pocket and handed it with an air to the
pallid assistant stage-director. Then, more gracefully than ever
Freddie Rooke had managed to move down-stage under the tuition of
Johnson Miller, he moved up-stage to the exit. "I trust that you will
be able to find someone who will play the part according to your
ideas!"

"I'll find," bellowed Mr. Goble at his vanishing back, "a chorus-man
who'll play it a damned sight better than you!" He waved to the
assistant stage-director. "Send the chorus-men on the stage!"

"All the gentlemen of the chorus on the stage, please!" shrilled the
assistant stage-director, bounding into the wings like a retriever.
"Mr. Goble wants all the chorus-gentlemen on the stage!"

There was a moment, when the seven male members of "The Rose of
America" ensemble lined up self-consciously before his gleaming eyes,
when Mr. Goble repented of his brave words. An uncomfortable feeling
passed across his mind that Fate had called his bluff and that he
would not be able to make good. All chorus-men are exactly alike, and
they are like nothing else on earth. Even Mr. Goble, anxious as he was
to overlook their deficiencies, could not persuade himself that in
their ranks stood even an adequate Lord Finchley.

And then, just as a cold reaction from his fervid mood was about to
set in, he perceived that Providence had been good to him. There, at
the extreme end of the line, stood a young man who, as far as
appearance went, was the ideal Lord Finchley--as far