“Some people are hard to convince. My father is one of them.
“‘I will cut you off with a dollar,’ he thundered, ‘if you do not give up this disgraceful fad. If you do I will take you into partnership.’
“Then I told him grandiosely that the resolution I had taken was fixed, immutable; but that rather than bring disgrace upon him, I would change my name as soon as this engagement was over, and go into a far country to act where no one would know me.
“‘I began life,’ he said, as he sunk back in his chair, ‘with fourpence in my pocket.’
“‘And I, daddy,’ I replied, ‘am beginning life without a penny, but possessed of one of the dearest old fathers that ever a young man was gifted with.’
“He was softened.
“‘Boy,’ he said, after a pause, ‘I am wealthy, but your sister must be my heir. If you must go—then go. I will place a trifle at your disposal in my bank at New York. You will have that to fall back upon, when your fad and folly leave you. Good-bye. I may never see you more.’
“He started from his chair and marched straight out of the room.
“Here, boys, ends the second act of the prodigal son.
“Just two months after this I found that my father’s words were coming true. I had attempted Hamlet, but was playing to very poor houses.