“It’s a hit all right,” said somebody through the smoke.
“These imitation ‘Raffles’ plays always are,” grumbled Willett, who played bluff fathers in musical comedy. “A few years ago they would have been scared to death of putting on a show with a criminal hero. Now, it seems to me, the public doesn’t want anything else. Not that they know what they do want,” he concluded mournfully.
The Belle of Boulogne, in which Willett sustained the role of Cyrus K. Higgs, a Chicago millionaire, was slowly fading away on a diet of free passes, and this possibly prejudiced him.
Raikes, the character-actor, changed the subject. If Willett once got started on the wrongs of the ill-fated Belle, general conversation would become impossible. Willett, denouncing the stupidity of the public, was purely a monologue artiste.
“I saw Jimmy Pitt at the show,” said Raikes. Everybody displayed interest.
“Jimmy Pitt? When did he come back? I thought he was in England?”
“He came on the Mauretania, I suppose. She docked this morning.”
“Jimmy Pitt?” said Sutton, of the Majestic Theatre. “How long has he been away? Last I saw of him was at the opening of The Outsider, at the Astor. That’s a couple of months ago.”
“He’s been travelling in Europe, I believe,” said Raikes. “Lucky beggar to be able to. I wish I could.”
Sutton knocked the ash off his cigar.