THE HIGH HAND.
Helen Rathbone Miss Nancy Price.
James Ollerenshaw Mr. Norman McKinnel.
There is great entertainment at the Vaudeville for the admirers of Mr. Norman McKinnel, among whom I propose to count myself whenever, as so rarely happens, he takes an evening off from his tyrannical methods—seldom very edifying when a woman is the victim. As the gentleman says in one of Oscar Wendell Holmes's books, "Quoiqu'elle soit très solidement montée, it ne faut pas brutaliser la machine." Here it is true that Mr. McKinnel started out on his familiar courses, but he soon found that he had to do with his match; that Helen's hand was always a little higher than his own. And, even when we saw him at his most dogmatic, the fact that the question of sex, in its physical aspects, did not enter into their relations—he was only her step-great-uncle—saved us from a great deal of uneasiness. In all his moods, whether of blustering self-assertion or reluctant surrender, of canny craft or protesting generosity, Mr. McKinnel was equally admirable.
