Foster might have expressed himself still more pungently if he had been
aware, as Cope was, of an episode which took place, behind the scenes,
at the close of the performance. Lemoyne's singing and dancing in the
last act had had a marked success: after all, people had come to enjoy
and to applaud. Following two or three recalls, a large sheaf of roses
had been passed over the footlights; for a close imitation of
professional procedure was held to give the advantage of strict
vraisemblance. This "tribute" Lemoyne took in character, with certain
graces, pirouettes and smiles. His success so mounted to his head (for
he was the one person in the case who approximated a professional
effect) that after he had retired he could not quiet down and leave his
part. He continued to act off-stage; and in his general state of
ebulliency he endeavored to bestow a measure of upwelling femininity
upon another performer who was in the dress of his own sex. This
downright fellow, in cutaway and silk hat, did not understand,--or at
least had no patience with a rôle carried too far. He brusquely cleared
himself of Lemoyne's arm with a good vigorous push. This effort not
only propelled Lemoyne against some scenery and left him, despite the
voluminous blond wig, with a bruise on his forehead; it immediately
pushed him out of his part, and it ended by pushing him out of the
organization and even out of the University.
"Keep off, will you!" said the young _élégant_ crudely.
Lemoyne's "atmosphere" dissipated suddenly. His art-structure
collapsed. As he looked about he saw plainly that the other man's act
was approved. He had carried things too far. Well, such are the risks
run by the sincere, self-revealing artist.
When all this reached Cope, he felt a personal chagrin. Truly, the art
of human intercourse was an art that called for some care. Lemoyne's
slight wound left no trace after forty-eight hours--perhaps his
"notices" in "The Index" and "The Campus" had acted as a salve; but
certain sections of opinion remained unfriendly, and there was arising
a new atmosphere of distaste and disapproval.
The college authorities had not been satisfied, for some time, with his
clerical labors, and some of them thought that his stage
performance--an "exhibition" one of them termed it--called for reproof,
or more. They laid their heads together and Lemoyne and Cope were not
long in learning their decision. Lemoyne was pronounced a useless
element in one field, a discrepant element in another, a detriment in
both. His essentially slight connection with the real life of the
University came to be more fully recognized. Alma Mater, in fine, could
do without him, and meant to. Censure was the lot of the indignant boys
who officered the society, and who asked Lemoyne to withdraw; and
complete scission from the nourishing vine of Knowledge was his final
fate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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