eried coachman and a footman.
Frohman objected to the footman as undemocratic. The landlord insisted
that it was Florentine etiquette, and shrugged his shoulders when they
departed, seeming to think that they were bound on a perilous journey.

Through the perfumed, flower-laden hills they climbed, the Arno
gleaming below. The footman took in their cards to the villa of Mlle. de
la Ramee. He promptly returned.

"The signora is indisposed," he remarked.

The visitors sent him back to ask if they might come some other day.
Again he returned.

"The signora is indisposed," was the only answer he could get.

Potter and Frohman drove away. Frohman was hurt. He did not try to
conceal it.

"That's the first author," he said, "who ever turned me down. Anyway,
the pancakes at lunch were delicious." He met rebuff--as he met
loss--with infinite humor.

* * *

Stars now crowded quick and fast into the Frohman firmament. Next came
Virginia Harned. Daniel Frohman had seen her in a traveling company at
the Fourteenth Street Theater and engaged her to support E. H. Sothern.
She later came under Charles's control, and he presented her as star in
"Alice of Old Vincennes," "Iris," and "The Light that Lies in Woman's
Eyes."

Effie Shannon and Herbert Kelcey followed. Their first venture with him,
"Manon Lescaut," was a direful failure, but it was followed up with "My
Lady Dainty," which was a success.

Charles Frohman had various formulas for making stars. Some he
discovered outright, others he developed. Here is an example of his
Christopher Columbus proclivities:

One day he heard that there was a very brilliant young Hungarian actor
playing a small part down at the Irving Place German Theater in New York
City. He went to see him, was very much impressed with his ability, sent
for him, and said:

"If you will study English I will agree to take care of you on the
English-speaking stage."

[Illustration: _JULIA MARLOWE_]

The man assented, and Frohman paid him a salary all the while he was
studying English. Before many years he was a well-known star. His name
was Leo Ditrichstein.

Frohman now got Ditrichstein to adapt "Are You a Mason?" from the
German, put it on at Wallack's Theater, and it was a huge success.
Besides Ditrichstein, this cast, which was a very notable one, included
John C. Rice, Thomas W. Wise, May Robson, Arnold Daly, Cecil De Mille,
and Sallie Cohen, who had played Topsy in the stranded "Uncle Tom's