suggest
'business' to a Salvini? Besides, could anything new be found for him in
a play he has acted for twenty years? No, I have not told your father,
nor do I intend to take such a liberty."

But next morning, when we came to that scene, Signor Salvini held up
his hand for a halt in the rehearsal, called for Alessandro, and,
bidding him act as interpreter, said, smiling pleasantly, to me, "Now
zee i-dee please you, madame?" for young Alessandro had betrayed my
confidence. There was a mocking sparkle in Salvini's blue eyes, but he
was politely ready to hear and reject "zee i-dee." I felt hot and
embarrassed, but I stood by my guns, and placing Alessandro in the
chair, I made him represent Conrad; and when he came to the furious
outburst, I swiftly lifted the cross and held it before his eyes till
his head sank upon my breast. But in a twinkling, with the cry, "No--no!
I show!" Salvini plucked Alessandro out of the seat, flung himself into
it, resumed the scene, and as I lifted the cross before his convulsed
features, his breath halted, slowly he lifted his face, when, divining
his meaning, I pressed the cross gently upon his trembling lips, and
with a sob his head fell weakly upon my breast. It was beautifully done;
even the actors were moved. Then he spoke rapidly to his son, who
translated to me thus: "How have I missed this 'business' all these
years? It is good--we will keep it always--tell madame that." And so,
courteously and without offence, this greatest of actors accepted a
suggestion from a newcomer in his play.

A certain English actor, who had been with him two or three seasons,
made a curious little mistake night after night, season after season,
and no one seemed to heed it. Of course Salvini, not speaking English,
could not be expected to detect the error. Where the venomous priest
should humbly bow himself out with the veiled threat, "This may yet end
in a trial--and--conviction!" the actor invariably said, "This may yet
end in a trial of convictions!" Barely three nights had passed when
Signor Salvini said to his son, "Why does Miss Morris smile at that
man's exit? It is not funny. Ask why she smiles." And he was greatly put
out with his actor when he learned the cause of my amusement. A very
observant man, you see.

He is a thinking actor; he knows _why_ he does a thing, and he used to
be very intolerant of some of the old-school "tricks of the trade."
Mind, when I was acting with him, he had come