The girls opened their eyes very wide. There was indeed a luminary in the house, a star of the first magnitude. A dramatic author! It was enough to make them tremble. "But why have you left them, Bob?" asked Mrs. Lethbridge. "I was told to go," replied Robert. "They did not want me. They're talking business." "Business!" exclaimed Mrs. Lethbridge. "What business can they have with father?" "Perhaps," suggested Robert, "he is going to take a theatre, and Mr. Linton is going to write the plays, and Mr. Kiss is going to act in them." "What nonsense you talk!" said Mrs. Lethbridge. "Mother," said Robert, solemnly, "my mind's made up." "A very small parcel," remarked Fanny, thus paying him off for the smut on her nose. "I'm serious," said Robert; "I'm fixed--yes, fixed as the polar star. That sounds well. I shall go on the stage." "And off again, very quick," said Fanny. "What! turn actor, Bob?" exclaimed Mrs. Lethbridge. "Yes," said Robert, folding his arms; "a second Irving." "Avaunt, and quit my sight!" cried Phoebe, seizing the rolling-pin and striking an attitude. They all fell to laughing, and 'Melia Jane stared at the young people, with her eyes almost starting out of their sockets. CHAPTER XI. KISS HAS SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT THEATRICAL MANAGERS. Meanwhile the gentlemen upstairs were discussing a serious subject. "I told you about our friend's play," said Kiss to Mr. Lethbridge--"his undeservedly unsuccessful play, produced a fort-night since at the Star Theatre. There are lines in it which would make the fortune of a poet, but these are not poetical days--on the stage. At a certain theatre, where an eminent brother of the craft, to whom I take off my hat"--he had no hat to take off, but he went through the necessary action--"has the ear of the public, and a following which is simply amazing to contemplate--at that theatre, I grant you, the poetical drama can be produced with great results; and also at one other temple of the drama, where a lady, admired and loved by all, reigns as queen; but produced elsewhere, it is risky, very. It requires, for success, a perfect and harmonious combination of rare forces, and such a following as I have spoken of, and these are only to be found in those two theatres. Do you take?" "Do I understand you?" said Mr. Lethbridge, deeply interested. "Yes."