eeling in one's
pockets, and it is much more natural than stopping in the middle of an
important speech in order to acknowledge any cheers. The realisation of
this, by a dramatist, is what is called "stagecraft." In this case the
audience could tell at once that the "technique" of the author (whose
name unfortunately I forget) was going to be all right.

But perhaps I had better describe the whole play as shortly as possible.
The theme--as one guessed from the title, even before the curtain
rose--was the wooing of _Winifred_. In the First Act _Dick_ proposed to
_Winifred_ and was refused by her, not from lack of love, but for fear
lest she might spoil his career, he being one of those big-hearted men
with a hip-pocket to whom the open spaces of the world call loudly.
Whereupon Mr. Levinski took _Winifred_ on one side and told the audience
how, when he had been a young man, some good woman had refused him for a
similar reason and had been miserable ever since. Accordingly in the
Second Act _Winifred_ withdrew her refusal and offered to marry _Dick_,
who declined to take advantage of her offer for fear that she was
willing to marry him from pity rather than from love; whereupon Mr.
Levinski took _Dick_ on one side and told the audience how, when _he_
had been a young man, he had refused to marry some good woman (a
different one) for a similar reason, and had been broken-hearted ever
afterwards. In the Third Act it really seemed as though they were coming
together at last; for at the beginning of it Mr. Levinski took them both
aside and told the audience a parable about a butterfly and a
snap-dragon, which was both pretty and helpful, and caused several
middle-aged ladies in the first and second rows of the upper circle to
say, "What a nice man Mr. Levinski must be at home, dear!"--the purport
of the allegory being to show that both _Dick_ and _Winifred_ were being
very silly, as indeed by this time everybody but the author was aware.
Unfortunately at that moment a footman entered with a telegram for _Miss
Winifred_, which announced that she had been left fifty thousand pounds
by a dead uncle in Australia; and although Mr. Levinski seized this
fresh opportunity to tell the audience how in similar circumstances
Pride, to his lasting remorse, had kept him and some good woman (a third
one) apart, nevertheless _Dick_ held back once more, for fear lest he
should be thought to be marrying her for her money. The curtain comes
dow