to the time when he was to
become a star. The cast was one of the most distinguished that
Frohman had ever assembled, and it included among its women five
future stars--Viola Allen, Blanche Walsh, Ida Conquest, Clara Bloodgood,
and May Robson.

* * *

By this time Henry Miller had left the Empire Stock Company and had gone
on the road with a play called "Heartsease," by Charles Klein and J. I.
C. Clark. It failed in Cincinnati, and Miller wrote Frohman about it. A
week later the men met on Broadway. Miller still believed in
"Heartsease" and asked Frohman if he could read it to him.

"All right," replied Frohman; "come to-morrow and let me hear it."

Miller showed up the next morning and left Klein and Clark, who had
accompanied him, in a lower office. Frohman locked the door, as was his
custom, curled himself up on a settee, lighted a cigar, and asked for
the manuscript.

"I didn't bring it. I will act it out for you."

Miller knew the whole production of the play depended upon his
performance. He improvised whole scenes and speeches as he went along,
and he made a deep impression. When he finished, Frohman sat still for a
few moments. Then he rang a bell and Alf Hayman appeared. To him he
said, quietly:

"We are going to do 'Heartsease.'"

Miller rushed down-stairs to where Klein and Clark were waiting, and
told them to get to work revising the manuscript.

When the play went into rehearsal, Frohman, who sat in front, spoke to
Miller from time to time, asking, "Where is that line you spoke in my
office?"

This incident is cited to show Charles's amazing memory. Miller, of
course, had improvised constantly during his personal performance of the
play, and Frohman recognized that these improvisations were missing when
the piece came into rehearsal.

Charles now added a third star to his constellation in Henry Miller. He
first produced "Heartsease" in New Haven. Charles Dillingham sat with
him during the performance. When the curtain went down on a big scene,
and the audience was in a tumult, demanding star and author, Frohman
leaned over to speak to his friend. Dillingham thought he was about to
make a historic remark, inspired by the enormous success of the play
before him. Instead, Frohman whispered:

"Charley, I wonder if they have any more of that famous apple-pie over
at Hueblein's?"

He was referring to a famous article of food that had added almost as
much glory to New Haven as had its historic u