“But I didn't act!”
“You didn't. And take my advice—don't!”
And he doesn't. Upon the reputation of his success in that comedy he arranged with another manager to appear in a play especially written for him. He is a prosperous star now. Whatever his play or part he always presents the same personality on the stage and he has made that personality dear to many theatre-goers. He does not appear too frequently or too long in any one place; hence he is warmly welcomed wherever and whenever he returns. He is classed among leading actors, and the ordinary person does not stop sufficiently long to observe that he is no actor at all.
“This isn't exactly art,” he said to me, the other night, with a tinge of self-rebuke. “But it's success.”
And the history of Newgag is the history of many.
XXV. — AN OPERATIC EVENING
I
A Desperate Youth