nt with the plot of a new novel which had been brought to his
attention by the news-stand boy at the Waldorf. Frohman listened to his
recital with interest.

"What is the name of the book?" he asked.

"Trilby," replied Potter.

"Well," he continued, "it ought to be called after that conjurer chap,
Bengali, or whatever his name is. However, go ahead. Get Lackaye back
from 'The District Attorney' company to which Palmer has lent him.
Engage young Ditrichstein by all means for one of your Bohemians. Call
in Virginia Harned and the rest of the stock company. And there you
are."

With uncanny precision he had cast the leading roles perfectly and on
the impulse of the moment.

During the fortnight of the incubation of the play Potter saw Frohman
nightly, for they were now fast friends. Frohman was curiously
fascinated by "Bengali," as he insisted upon calling Svengali.

"We do it next Monday in Boston," said Potter, "and I count on your
coming to see it."

Frohman went to Boston to see the second performance. After the play he
and Potter walked silently across the Common to the Thorndyke Hotel. In
his room Frohman broke into speech:

"They are roasting it awfully in New York," he began. "Yet Joe Jefferson
says it will go around the world." Then he added, "They say you have cut
out all the Bohemian stuff."

"Nevertheless," replied Potter, "W. A. Brady has gone to New York
to-night to offer Mr. Palmer ten thousand dollars on account for the
road rights."

"Well," said Frohman, showing his hand at last, "Jefferson and Brady are
right, and if Palmer will let me in I'll go half and half, or, if he
prefers, I'll take it all."

At supper after the first performance at the Garden Theater in New York,
Frohman advised Sir Herbert Tree to capture the play for London.
Henceforth, wherever he traveled, "Trilby" seemed to pursue him.

"I've seen your old 'Bengali,'" he wrote Potter, "in Rome, Vienna,
Berlin, everywhere. It haunts me. And, as you cut out the good Bohemian
stuff, I'll use it myself at the Empire."

He did so in Clyde Fitch's version of "La Vie de Boheme," which was
called "Bohemia."

"How did it go?" Potter wrote him from Switzerland.

"Pretty well," replied Frohman. "Unfortunately we left out 'Bengali.'"

On more than one occasion Frohman produced a play for the mere pleasure
of doing it. He put on a certain little dramatic fantasy. It was
foredoomed to failure and held the boards only a week.

"Why d