he play to a novel by the Comtesse de Martel."
The "Comtesse de Martel" sounded nice and swagger, though "Gyp" is
anything but that in her novels.

The comedy was very light, and frolicsome, and jolly,
and--er--naughty, and--er--respectable. You had to stay to the very
end, which was not bitter, in order to discover that it _was_ quite
respectable. That is where the English playwright always seems to
improve upon the French. In London, a heroine may be volatile, and
saucy, and unconventional, and iconoclastic, and spicy, and shocking,
and quite horrible, but in the last act the adapter allows you to
discover that she is really a very good, nice, whole-hearted woman;
that she loves her husband in a faithful, wifely way, and that she
will live happily ever afterward, a perfect picture of all the
domestic graces. The curse has gone! It is the triumph of
deodorization.

So in "The Freedom of Suzanne," while _Suzanne_ danced a veritable
_can-can_ through two acts, she was brought back to a sedate English
jig in the third. It was a play that could not stand, and that did not
need a close analysis, for it was just a vehicle by means of which
Miss Tempest could let loose the matchless bag-o'-tricks among which
her art may be said to lurk. _Suzanne_ gave her the finest acting part
that she has ever had. It was an intellectual treat to sit and watch
the really exquisite, delicate work that she embroidered upon the
diaphanous theme of the amusing little comedy.

_Suzanne_ was terribly tired of her husband, and _Charles_ did seem a
bit of a bore. He was the type of "married man" who can no longer see
graces in the woman who belongs to him--because she belongs to him.
_Suzanne_ chafed, and wanted her freedom. She clamored for a divorce,
but there were no grounds upon which to obtain it. She yearned for the
right to select her own associates; to do what she liked; to have a
good time, and to be responsible to nobody. There was a mother-in-law
in the case, of course, and, although the brand has become tiresome,
this particular lady was necessary in order to emphasize _Suzanne's_
apparently hapless plight.

Miss Tempest's success was assured when, in the first act, she recited
the story of her own scandalous doings, with the divorce in view. As a
piece of acting, this was worth the attention of every theatergoer.
The actress sat on a sofa, and ran through the list of episodes in an
amazing way. Some of her story she told with her