dramatic art. All they talk about is method, method, method. But what
about technique?"

"I have observed your species with great diligence and I thought I had
acquisitioned your habits and speakings to perfectness. But I fear that,
like my initial face, I have got them awry. I want you to teach me to
act like a human being, to talk like a human being, to think like a
human being."

Paul's attention was really caught. "Well, that _is_ a challenge! I
don't suppose Stanislavsky ever had to teach an extraterrestrial, or
even Strasberg--"

"Then we are in accordance," Ivo said. "You will instruction me?" He
essayed a smile.

Paul shuddered. "Very well," he said. "We'll start now. And I think the
first thing we'd better start with is lessons in smiling."

Ivo proved to be a quick study. He not only learned to smile, but to
frown and to express surprise, pleasure, horror--whatever the occasion
demanded. He learned the knack of counterfeiting humanity with such
skill that, Paul was moved to remark one afternoon when they were
leaving Brooks Brothers after a fitting, "Sometimes you seem even more
human than I do, Ivo. I wish you'd watch out for that tendency to rant,
though. You're supposed to speak, not make speeches."

"I try not to," Ivo said, "but I keep getting carried away by
enthusiasm."

"Apparently I have a real flair for teaching," Paul went on as, expertly
camouflaged by Brooks, the two young men melted into the dense
charcoal-gray underbrush of Madison Avenue. "I seem to be even more
versatile than I thought. Perhaps I have been--well, not wasting but
limiting my talents."

"That may be because your talents have not been sufficiently
appreciated," his star pupil suggested, "or given enough scope."

Ivo was so perceptive! "As a matter of fact," Paul agreed, "it has often
seemed to me that if some really gifted individual, equally adept at
acting, directing, producing, playwriting, teaching, et al., were to
undertake a thorough synthesis of the theater--ah, but that would cost
money," he interrupted himself, "and who would underwrite such a
project? Certainly not the government of the United States." He gave a
bitter laugh.

"Perhaps, under a new regime, conditions might be more favorable for the
artist--"

"Shhh!" Paul looked nervously over his shoulder. "There are Senators
everywhere. Besides, I never said things were _good_ in Russia, just
_better_--for the actor, that is. Of course the plays are a