There is great entertainment at the Vaudeville for the admirers of Mr. NORMAN MCKINNEL, among whom I propose to count myself whenever, as so rarely happens, he takes an evening off from his tyrannical methods--seldom very edifying when a woman is the victim. As the gentleman says in one of OSCAR WENDELL HOLMES'S books, "_Quoiqu'elle soit tres solidement montee, it ne faut pas brutaliser la machine_." Here it is true that Mr. MCKINNEL started out on his familiar courses, but he soon found that he had to do with his match; that _Helen's_ hand was always a little higher than his own. And, even when we saw him at his most dogmatic, the fact that the question of sex, in its physical aspects, did not enter into their relations--he was only her step-great-uncle--saved us from a great deal of uneasiness. In all his moods, whether of blustering self-assertion or reluctant surrender, of canny craft or protesting generosity, Mr. MCKINNEL was equally admirable. [Illustration: THE HIGH HAND. _Helen Rathbone_ Miss NANCY PRICE. _James Ollerenshaw_ Mr. NORMAN MCKINNEL.] The local atmosphere of the Five Towns was established with less delay over detail than is customary in this kind. There was a lot of tea-drinking, I admit, but no doubt this beverage plays a strong part in the social life of the Potteries. There was also much handling of domestic provisions--streaky bacon, cheese, and so forth--but all this was proper enough in a play that largely turned upon the changes in an old celibate's _menage_. But in the main it was a comedy of character, a struggle between youth and crabbed age, in which the younger will and the quicker wit prevailed. As we first see him, _James Ollerenshaw_ is a crusty, browbeating, misogynist, hoarding his wealth, content with a mean habit of life, and convinced that nobody can get the better of him. As we see him at the end he is a tamed man, dependent on female protection against the wiles of a designing widow, and established, at great cost, with his niece in the noble and ancient mansion of her desire. There were subsidiary love-episodes, of course, but these, though novel in some particulars, were relatively perfunctory. The character of _James Ollerenshaw_ was the real matter of resistance. Miss NANCY PRICE'S _Helen_ was a very probable performance. For myself I found her a little too minx-eyed for my taste, but no doubt this was part of the right Pottery touch. Minor characters were all brightly played, Miss MIELE MAUND being particularly happy as a garrulous young girl in the first flush of an engagement, who subsequently throws over her violent _fiance_ on the ground that "she could never marry a man who pushes people into lakes." Even the _vieux jeu_ of the designing widow took on a certain freshness in the robust bands of Miss ROSINA FILIPPI. [Illustration: MODES FROM "THE POTTERIES." What Mr. ARNOLD BENNETT'S ladies wear to-day Vienna wears to-morrow. _Lilian Swetnam_ Miss MIELE MAUND.]