“But can you take this part?” said Mr. Harris, with a peculiar accent on the you. “I don’t want to have a bad performance on the opening night, it will almost ruin my reputation.”
“You can rely on me,” said Harry, “I played just such a part in ‘The Rivals’ when at college, and my friends told me I would miss my calling unless I took the stage for my profession?”
“Harry, you’re a brick!” said the manager, slapping him on the shoulder, “and if you succeed, I’ll do anything in my power for you.”
The rehearsal was gone through with successfully, all being present except the leading lady, who wished to save her strength for the evening performance.
The theatre was crowded, for Oscar Redmond was an excellent actor and a great favorite. Just before going on the stage, Harry was introduced to the leading actress. He was thunderstruck; it was the lady with the blue eyes.
Never did actor play with more enthusiasm and fervor, never was a love scene more realistic; for the time being Harry forgot he was reciting so many words, but he was pleading his own cause with a love that knew no bounds. If one had been watching Harry with an opera glass, as he knelt at the feet of the heroine, he could have seen him raise a dainty hand to his lips and kiss it. It was all that Harry wanted; for to him it meant that he had been accepted—not by the lady in the play, but by the girl whose blue eyes had won him the night before.
The audience was thunderous in its applause, and curtain calls were numerous. The next day Oscar Redmond, shamefaced yet curious, appeared at Mr. Harris’s private office. The morning papers were lavish in their praise of the young actor, and he was anxious to learn the meaning of it. When he was told that his part had been taken so admirably by another, he made his first New Year’s resolution, which he has never broken.
“And now, Mr. Harris,” said Harry, “I ask, as the fulfilment of your promise of yesterday, the hand of the sweetest and best girl that ever lived, that of your daughter.”
“But what of the young lady, Harry? Surely, she ought to be consulted first.” “She has already accepted me,” replied Harry, “it now remains with you.”
“I am only too glad to give my consent,” said Mr. Harris, and a moment later Harry was receiving congratulations from Oscar Redmond and a score of new made friends.