"You see," said Dolly, frankly, "we thought you'd be—different."
"Oh, of course you did! They always do! You wanted to see the Lascar, not plain James Brown!"
"What!" cried Alicia, hope rising in her breast that this was not the great actor after all, "aren't you Bayne Coriell?"
"Sure! That's my stage name, but in private life I'm James Brown, at your service."
"You don't even look like the Lascar!" wailed Dotty, dismayed at the turn things had taken.
"Of course, I don't, little one. Actors on and off, are two different persons. Oh, I begin to see through this performance. Your uncle didn't tell you anything about me! Eh?"
"No, sir," said Dolly, as the others were silent. "We saw you in your play, and we admired your work so much, that we—we—"
"Oh, the matinee idol business! Well, well! I didn't expect that. Why, kiddies, outside the theatre, I'm just a plain United States citizen. I have a daughter about the age of you girls. My Muriel is fourteen, nearly fifteen, but she's taller than any of you. Your uncle is a great friend of mine. He was my father's chum, and he has been more than kind to me all my life. I supposed he knew all about the letter from Miss Alicia, and ran around here expecting to see you and him both."
"That's why he chuckled at us!" and Dolly's eyes twinkled at the joke. Somehow, she seemed more at ease with the actor than the other girls. "You see, Mr. Brown, we thought you'd be more like you are on the stage. Of course we didn't expect you'd be dressed like the Lascar, or—or—made up,—isn't that what you call it? but we thought you'd be stagy and actory—"
James Brown laughed. "Everybody thinks that, or something like it," he said. "Few people realise that an actor's profession is MERELY a profession,—a business; and that we discard it out of business hours."