“You know that startled me. After a while it scared me, too.
“I asked Mr. Donnell, privately, if that were true, and he laughed and said that several perfectly respectable women, guiltless of murder, had successfully played Lady Macbeth.
“But I’m still wondering. Of course it isn’t necessary to murder somebody in order to play the part of an assassin.
“But murder is an overt act. A murderous state of mind need not have any concrete consequence.
“Love, also, must be a state of mind.
“So do you think that one must have been actually in love to interpret convincingly in a play whatever results of love are to be presented?
“I asked Betsy. She said yes. So I suppose she has been in love, because she does her part convincingly.
“But what about me if ever I am cast for such a part? Yet, it seems to me that I ought to have enough instinct and intelligence to know how to be convincing.
“You see Mr. Smull wants me to play second to Betsy in the next production; and the part is a girl in love who has a most unhappy time until the very end of the play.
“One can study, read up, and prepare; but one can not enter into that state of mind at will.