“In Italy after the Renaissance one of the actresses—I forget her name—was so much honored that when she came to a town she was received with a salute of cannon.
“Louis XIV. loved Molière, stood godfather to his child, and suggested a scene for one of his plays. One of Napoleon’s few intimate friends was the actor Talma.
“David Garrick was in high favor at court and he sold his interest in Drury Lane, when he retired, for one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
“And if I may speak of my own ancestors, Mrs. Siddons was one of the most highly esteemed and irreproachable women of her time. Sir Joshua Reynolds was proud to paint her as the Tragic Muse and old Dr. Samuel Johnson wrote his autograph on the canvas along the edge of her robe because he said he wanted his name to go down to posterity on the hem of her garment.
“Her brother, John Philip Kemble, was so successful that he bought a sixth share in Covent Garden for over one hundred thousand dollars. When it burned down it would have ruined him if the Duke of Northumberland had not made him a loan of fifty thousand dollars. And later he refused repayment.
“Take an actress of our own time, Sarah Bernhardt. What woman in human history has had more honor, or made more money? Or take—”
Polly felt it time to intervene. “For Heaven’s sake, ring down! You’re not at Chautauqua, you know.”
Kemble started and blinked like a sleep-walker abruptly wakened. “I beg your pardon,” he said. “I was riding my hobby and he ran away.”
The Winfields were plentifully impressed and Mrs. Winfield completely overwhelmed when Lady Braithwaite said:
“He’s quite right, my dear. There’s no question of the social position of the stage. So many actresses have married into our peerage that you can’t tell which is the annex of which; and no end of young peers are going on the stage. They can’t act, but it keeps them out of mischief in a way. And I can’t see that stage-marriages are any less permanent than the others. Can you? I mean to say, I’ve known most charming cases. My poor friend the Duchess of Stonehenge had a son who was a hopeless little cad and rotter—and he married an actress—you know the one I mean—from the Halls she was, too. And you know she’s made a man of him—a family man, too, she has, really! And she’s the most devoted of mothers. Really she is!”