“You want to talk shop,” he says, striding about the room, with his hands in the pockets of his loose gray coat. “Well, with all my heart, if you think it useful and interesting.”
“I do.”
“May I select the subject?”
“Yes.”
“Then I would like to go back to one we touched upon at your own suggestion some months ago.”
“An actor on his audiences?”
“Yes. The subject is a good one; it interests me, and in that brief anonymous newspaper sketch of a year ago you did little more than indicate the points we discussed. Let us see if we cannot revive and complete it.”
“Agreed. I will ‘interview’ you, then, as they say in America.”
“By all means,” replied my host, handing me a cigar, and settling himself down in an easy-chair by the fire. “I am ready.”
“Well, then, as I think I have said before when on this subject, there has always appeared to me something phenomenal in the mutual understanding that exists between you and your audiences; it argues an active sympathy and confidence on both sides.”