guess where I have just come from. I have been to your
Westminster Abbey."

[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY CHARLES FROHMAN

_CHARLES FROHMAN'S OFFICE IN THE EMPIRE THEATER_]

Lestocq expressed surprise, whereupon Frohman continued:

"Yes, I just walked in and spoke to a man in a gown and said, 'Where is
Mr. Irving buried?' He showed me, and I stood there for a few minutes,
said a couple of things, and came on here."

* * *

Frohman's office at the Empire Theater was characteristic of the man
himself. It was a room of considerable proportions, with the atmosphere
of a study. It was lined with rather low book-shelves, on which stood
the bound copies of the plays he had produced. Interspersed was a
complete set of Lincoln's speeches and letters.

On one side was a large stone fireplace; in a corner stood a grand
piano; the center was dominated by a simple, flat-topped desk, across
which much of the traffic of the American theater passed.

Near at hand was a low and luxurious couch. Here Frohman sat
cross-legged and listened to plays. This performance was a sort of
sacred rite, and was always observed behind locked doors. No Frohman
employee would think of intruding upon his chief at such a time.

Here, as in London, Frohman was surrounded by pictures of his stars.
Dominating them was J. W. Alexander's fine painting of Miss Adams in
"L'Aiglon." On a shelf stood a bust of John Drew. There were portraits
of playwrights, too. A photograph of Clyde Fitch had this inscription:

"To C. F. from c. f."

There was only one real art object in the office, a magnificent marble
bust of Napoleon, whom Frohman greatly admired. He was always pleased
when he was told that he looked like the Man of Destiny.

His sense of personal modesty was a very genuine thing. Shortly before
he sailed on the fatal trip he had a request from a magazine writer who
wanted to write the story of his life. He sent back a vigorous refusal
to co-operate, saying, among other things:

"It is most obnoxious to me in every way. It is forcing oneself on the
public so far as I am concerned, and I don't want that, and, besides,
they are not interested. It is only for the great men of our country. It
is not for me. It looks like cheek and presumption on my part, because
_it is_, and I ask you not to go on with it."

* * *

He believed in system. One day he said:

"We must have on file in our office the complete record of every
first-class theater