But no one can afford to neglect the truth of the old warning reminding us that opportunities are very sensitive things, and that if you slight them on their first visit you seldom see them again. Of that memorable performance at the St. James's, Clement Scott says:-- "On that never-to-be-forgotten night this young girl, Kate Terry, made an astounding success. Her name was scarcely known; no one knew that we had amongst us a young actress of so much beauty, talent, and, what was more wonderful still, true dramatic power, for the temptation scene wants acting, and not the kind of trifling that we see in these modern and amateurish days." The next morning, Tom Taylor in the _Times_ let himself go, and blew the trumpet in praise of the new actress, Kate Terry. Her fame was made from that minute. She never turned back. Quickly she became the stage divinity of her day, and she remained the idol of London playgoers until, on her early marriage, she retired into private life. Those who saw her will never forget either her personal charm or the perfection of her art, and they will, I think, like to take a glimpse with me into a cherished past. We are told that times of special happiness should be regarded as a sort of reserve fund, to be drawn upon in dark or cloudy days, and the evenings of long ago, when we delighted in the acting of Kate Terry, were times of exceeding happiness. The little world of the theatre in which we have revelled is still open to us, and it is always pleasant to turn over the brightest pages of its history. Many of us know how old fox-hunters are never so happy as when they are recalling the glorious "runs" of the past. How they met at Quinton Cross Roads; found "one of the right sort" in Bamkin's Gorse; ran him at a rattling pace over Lickford Common; had a check in Bowler's Wood; lost him in Messer's Osier Beds; found him again, and followed him over that dangerous water jump, Priddis Brook, low lying, as it broadly flows between thick quick-set hedges; and finally ran him to earth in Linnecor Coppice. So are old playgoers supremely content when with congenial souls they discuss the famous and favourite actors and actresses they have seen and admired in bygone days. So they will follow them from their initial efforts in the provinces, through their series of triumphs in this or that London theatre. To such theatrical enthusiasts as these their collections of old play-bills are as precious and replete with pleasurable reminiscences as are the "pads" of many defunct reynards nailed to the stable doors of the fox-hunter. At about the time when Kate Terry made her unmistakable mark at the St. James's, Charles Albert Fechter was the actor-hero of the hour.