“And shall again,” he laughed. “The right thing isn't easy to get.”
“Cheer up,” he added kindly, “this is only your first attempt. We must try and knock it into shape at rehearsal.”
Their notion of “knocking it into shape” was knocking it to pieces.
“I'll tell you what we'll do,” would say the low comedian; “we'll cut that scene out altogether.” Joyously he would draw his pencil through some four or five pages of my manuscript.
“But it is essential to the story,” I would argue.
“Not at all.”
“But it is. It is the scene in which Roderick escapes from prison and falls in love with the gipsy.”
“My dear boy, half-a-dozen words will do all that. I meet Roderick at the ball. 'Hallo, what are you doing here?' 'Oh, I have escaped from prison.' 'Good business. And how's Miriam?' 'Well and happy—she is going to be my wife!' What more do you want?”
“I have been speaking to Mr. Hodgson,” would observe the leading lady, “and he agrees with me, that if instead of falling in love with Peter, I fell in love with John—”
“But John is in love with Arabella.”