saw her at the opening
rehearsal for the first time.

"Electricity" was a failure. Instead of following up her connection with
the Frohman office, she went to the cast of "A Pair of Sixes," in which
she played for a whole season on Broadway, displaying qualities which
brought her conspicuously before the public and to the notice of the man
who was to do so much for her.

One night Charles stopped in to see this farce. He had never forgotten
the lovely young girl who had played in "Electricity." The next day he
sent for Miss Murdock, offered her an engagement, and made another of
those simple arrangements, for he said to her:

"You are with me for life."

This was Frohman's way of telling an actor or actress that, without the
formality of a contract, they were to look to him each season for
employment and that they need not worry about engagements.

From this time on Frohman took an earnest interest in Miss Murdock's
career. He saw in her, as he had seen in only a few of his women stars,
an immense opportunity to create a new and distinct type.

[Illustration: _ANN MURDOCK_]

Just about this time he became very much interested in the English
adaptation of a French play which he called "The Beautiful Adventure,"
which was, curiously enough, one of the plays uppermost in his mind on
the day he went to his death.

He now did a daring but characteristic Frohman thing. He believed
implicitly in Miss Murdock's talents; he felt that the part of the
ingenuous young girl in this play was ideally suited to her pleading
personality, so, in conjunction with Mrs. Thomas Whiffen and Charles
Cherry, he featured her in the cast. Miss Murdock's characterization
amply justified Frohman's confidence, but the play failed in New York
and on the road. He wrote to Miss Murdock:

_I am afraid our little play is too gentle for the West. Come back.
I have something else for you._

He now put Miss Murdock into Porter Emerson Browne's play "A Girl of
To-day," which had its first presentation in Washington. Frohman, Miss
Murdock, and her mother were riding from the station in Washington to
the Shoreham Hotel. As they passed the New National Theater, where the
young actress was to appear, Miss Murdock suddenly looked out of the cab
and saw the following inscription in big type on the bill:

_Charles Frohman presents Ann Murdock in "A Girl of To-day."_

It was the first intimation that she had been made a star, and she bur