mark a new era in the history of the stage. But mum, Chris, my boy, mum! Not a word of this to any of my relations.' My acquiescent rejoinders were very pleasing to him, and he expressed a high opinion of my judgment. 'You shall come and see me play to-morrow night,' he said, 'at the Royal Columbia. I'm engaged there for the heavy business. Can you get away from work at half-past five o'clock? I'll come for you, if you like, and we'll walk together to the shop' (thus irreverently designating the Temple of Thespis). I said I thought I could get away, and he promised to call for me. 'You will see, sir, Chris, my boy, the most villainous and incomprehensible blood-and-thunder melodrama that ever was presented on the stage--it is called _The Knight of the Sable Plume, or The Bloodstained Banner_. Isn't the very title enough to drive intelligent persons from the doors? But, sir, Chris, my boy, we play to a twopenny gallery, and the twopenny gallery will have blood for its money, and plenty of it. _The Bloodstained Banner_ is a vile hash put together for a "star"--an arrant impostor, sir--who plays the leading part. I'll say nothing of him--you shall see and judge for yourself. I play Plantagenet the Ruthless; I don't slur my part because it's impossible, absurd, and ridiculous--you'll find no shirking in Turk West; he knows what duty is, and he does it. If I have lines given me to speak in which there isn't an atom of sense, it isn't my fault; I speak them because I'm paid to speak them, and I do my best to illuminate--that's the word, sir, Chris, my boy--to illuminate a character which is an insult to my intelligence. Necessity knows no law, and if I'm compelled to knuckle-down to fate to-day, I live in hopes that the sun will shine to-morrow.' I said that I sincerely hoped the sun would shine to-morrow, and that it _would_ shine brightly for him; and Turk West wrung my hand, and said that he wished the audiences he had to play to were as intellectually gifted as I was, adding that then there would be hope for the drama. I obtained permission to leave on the following evening at the time mentioned by Turk, who was as good as his word in coming for me, and we walked together to the Royal Columbia Theatre. 'Prepare yourself, my boy,' he said, in the tone of one who was about to initiate a novice in solemn mysteries; 'I am going to take you behind the scenes.'