IV.
It is customary in American theatres for the orchestra to play the audience out as well as in.
“We will dispense with that,” said Irving to his conductor, Mr. Ball.
“It is a general habit here,” remarked the Star manager.
“Yes, I understand so,” Irving replied; “but it seems to me a difficult matter to select the music appropriately to the piece. What sort of music do you usually play?”
“A march.”
“Ah, well, you see our plays are so different, that a march which would do one night would be entirely out of place the next. Have you the score of ‘The Dead March in Saul’?”
“No,” was the conductor’s reply.
“Well, then, I think we will finish as we do in London,—with the fall of the curtain. If we make a failure on Monday night, the most appropriate thing you could play would be ‘The Dead March.’ As you have no score of it we will do without the exit music.”