elihoods in the hollow of his hand, and backed
out. Over and over again the date and place were fixed and the tickets
printed, only to be canceled, until at last the desperate and overworked
manager of the Stage Society could only laugh, as criminals broken on
the wheel used to laugh at the second stroke. We rehearsed under great
difficulties. Christmas pieces and plays for the new year were being
produced in all directions; and my six actor colleagues were busy
people, with engagements in these pieces in addition to their current
professional work every night. On several raw winter days stages for
rehearsal were unattainable even by the most distinguished applicants;
and we shared corridors and saloons with them whilst the stage was
given over to children in training for Boxing night. At last we had to
rehearse at an hour at which no actor or actress has been out of bed
within the memory of man; and we sardonically congratulated one another
every morning on our rosy matutinal looks and the improvement wrought
by our early rising in our health and characters. And all this, please
observe, for a society without treasury or commercial prestige, for
a play which was being denounced in advance as unmentionable, for an
author without influence at the fashionable theatres! I victoriously
challenge the West End managers to get as much done for interested
motives, if they can.

Three causes made the production the most notable that has fallen to my
lot. First, the veto of the Censor, which put the supporters of the play
on their mettle. Second, the chivalry of the Stage Society, which, in
spite of my urgent advice to the contrary, and my demonstration of the
difficulties, dangers, and expenses the enterprise would cost, put my
discouragements to shame and resolved to give battle at all costs to
the attempt of the Censorship to suppress the play. Third, the artistic
spirit of the actors, who made the play their own and carried it through
triumphantly in spite of a series of disappointments and annoyances much
more trying to the dramatic temperament than mere difficulties.

The acting, too, required courage and character as well as skill and
intelligence. The veto of the Censor introduced quite a novel element of
moral responsibility into the undertaking. And the characters were very
unusual on the English stage. The younger heroine is, like her mother,
an Englishwoman to the backbone, and not, like the heroines of our
fashionab