, and doughtily
resolved, as I was in for the business, to "screw my courage to the
sticking-place,' and go through with it as boldly as I might.

By dint of continually studying my role, my dislike to it gradually
diminished, nay, at length was converted into positive enthusiasm. I
became convinced that I should make a decided hit, and cover my temples
with unfading laurel. I rehearsed at all times, seasons, and places, until
I was a perfect nuisance to everybody, and my acquaintance, I am sure, to
a man, wished both me and her bloodthirsty ladyship, deeper than plummet
ever sounded, at the bottom of the sea. Even the brute creation did not
escape the annoyance. One morning my English pointer "Spot" ran yelping
out of the room, panic-stricken by the vehement manner with which I
exclaimed, "Out damned _spot_, out, I say!" and with the full conviction,
which the animal probably entertained to the day of his death, that the
said anathema had personal reference to himself.

The evening big with my fate at last arrived. The house was crammed,
expectation on tiptoe, and the play commenced. The first four acts went
off swimmingly, my performance especially was applauded to the echo, and
there only wanted the celebrated sleeping scene, in which I flattered
myself to be particularly strong, to complete my triumph. Triumph, did I
say!

I must here explain, for the benefit of those who have never rounded the
Cape, that the extreme heat of an Indian climate is so favourable to the
growth of hair as to put those wights who are afflicted with dark
_chevelures_, which was my case, to the inconvenient necessity of
chin-scraping twice on the game day, when they wish to appear particularly
spruce of an evening. Now I intended to have shaved before the play began,
but in the hurry of dressing had forgotten all about it; and upon
inspecting my visage in a glass, after I had donned Lady Macbeth's
night-gear, the lower part of it appeared so swart in contrast with the
white dress, that I found it would be absolutely necessary to pass a razor
over it before going on with my part.

The night was excessively warm, even for India; and as the place allotted
to us for dressing was very small and confined, the bright thought struck
me that I should have more air and room on the stage, whither I
accordingly directed my servant to follow me with the shaving apparatus.

I ensconced myself behind the drop-scene, which was down, and was in the
act