* * *

AT THE PLAY.

"HELEN WITH THE HIGH HAND."

There is great entertainment at the Vaudeville for the admirers of Mr.
NORMAN MCKINNEL, among whom I propose to count myself whenever, as so
rarely happens, he takes an evening off from his tyrannical methods--seldom
very edifying when a woman is the victim. As the gentleman says in one of
OSCAR WENDELL HOLMES'S books, "_Quoiqu'elle soit tres solidement montee, it
ne faut pas brutaliser la machine_." Here it is true that Mr. MCKINNEL
started out on his familiar courses, but he soon found that he had to do
with his match; that _Helen's_ hand was always a little higher than his
own. And, even when we saw him at his most dogmatic, the fact that the
question of sex, in its physical aspects, did not enter into their
relations--he was only her step-great-uncle--saved us from a great deal of
uneasiness. In all his moods, whether of blustering self-assertion or
reluctant surrender, of canny craft or protesting generosity, Mr. MCKINNEL
was equally admirable.

[Illustration: THE HIGH HAND.

_Helen Rathbone_ Miss NANCY PRICE.

_James Ollerenshaw_ Mr. NORMAN MCKINNEL.]

The local atmosphere of the Five Towns was established with less delay over
detail than is customary in this kind. There was a lot of tea-drinking, I
admit, but no doubt this beverage plays a strong part in the social life of
the Potteries. There was also much handling of domestic provisions--streaky
bacon, cheese, and so forth--but all this was proper enough in a play that
largely turned upon the changes in an old celibate's _menage_. But in the
main it was a comedy of character, a struggle between youth and crabbed
age, in which the younger will and the quicker wit prevailed. As we first
see him, _James Ollerenshaw_ is a crusty, browbeating, misogynist, hoarding
his wealth, content with a mean habit of life, and convinced that nobody
can get the better of him. As we see him at the end he is a tamed man,
dependent on female protection against the wiles of a designing widow, and
established, at great cost, with his niece in the noble and ancient mansion
of her desire. There were subsidiary love-episodes, of course, but these,
though novel in some particulars, were relatively perfunctory. The
character of _James Ollerenshaw_ was the real matter of resistance.

Miss NANCY PRICE'S _Helen_ was a very probable performance. For myself I
found her a little too minx-eyed for my taste, but no doubt thi