“I played with heart and soul. I had the people with me, and felt I had; and when at the end of the first act I was called before the curtain, I received an ovation that would have satisfied a far better actor than I.
“Hardly thinking about the disgrace my people would imagine I was bringing on them, I accepted the manager’s terms to play for three weeks.
“I told them that night what I had done. Mother was silent, Sissie looked frightened; and when next morning we all met at breakfast, I could see that both had been crying.
“Scarcely a word was said, but that forenoon my father asked me into his sanctum.
“‘Boy, boy,’ he began, ‘why this madness? Do you wish to bring my grey hairs down with sorrow to the grave?’
“I sat quietly down that our eyes might be more on a level, for I am very tall.
“‘Dear father,’ I said, ‘I am foolish enough to think that I shall be an honour to you as an actor.’
“‘Honour! Actor!’ he cried.
“‘It is a noble profession,’ I said quietly; ‘and when you come to listen to my interpretation of Hamlet, you will believe that God has gifted your son with genius. There will be no sorrow then, dear daddy.
“‘Besides,’ I added mischievously, ‘you haven’t got a single solitary grey hair in head or whiskers.’