however, stayed on to the finish, and Miss EMILY BROOKE saw
her nicely through her troubles. A very level performance.

[Illustration: "CHARGE, CHESTER--CHARGE!"

_Count Paul de Virieu_ . . . MR. OWEN NARES.
_William Chester_ . . . . . MR. JOHN HOWELL.]

To the rather wooden part of _William Chester_ (foil to hero) Mr. JOHN
HOWELL brought a certain unliveliness of his own. A better chance was
taken by Miss STELLA RHO, who gave proof of a vivid personality in
her brief sketch of a professional fortune-teller who admitted to her
clients (this must be very unusual) that she nearly always made a mess
of her crystal-gazing.

Finally, Mr. OWEN NARES, looking pretty and not too warlike in the gay
uniform of a French Officer of Cavalry, played the hero's part with a
very natural and fluent charm. I join in the general hope that this,
the first play under his actor-management, will go well. It ought to,
for though, in point of power to thrill, it did not quite confirm the
promise of its sinister name and theme it was never for a moment dull,
and its faults were the kind of stage-faults about which, while they
give the critic a chance of being unkind, a British audience never
worries too much.

O.S.

* * * * *

A matinee of _Romeo and Juliet_ will be given at the Royal Court
Theatre on Sunday, March 30th, at 2.30 P.M., in aid of the Notting
Hill Day Nursery, which has done such admirable service among the poor
of "The Potteries." Help is greatly needed to enable the promoters of
this good work (for which Mr. Punch has before now appealed) to pay
off a mortgage and to start a fund for a convalescent cottage-home.
Among the cast of the matinee will be Miss MONA MAUGHAN, Mr. DENNIS
NEILSON-TERRY and Mr. OTHO STUART, who produces it. Tickets may be
obtained from the Hon. Sec., 22, Paulton's Square, Chelsea, S.W.

* * * * *

[Illustration: LEAVES FROM A SPECIAL'S REMINISCENCES OF THE GREAT WAR.

_Small Girl (on morning after air-raid)._ "HI, MISTER, _'E_ BROKE THAT
WINDER!"]

* * * * *

"STAGE-STRUCK NOVELISTS.

"LILLAH MCCARTHY AS EXECUTIONER."--_Sunday Paper_.

Well, they can't say they haven't had a fair warning.

* * * * *

"Scotsmen the world over possess to a remarkable degree the
spirit of clamishness."--_Times of India_.

A good many of them have certainly made the