his wife went on a tour, after ending their engagement at the Fourteenth Street Theatre, in an early success of theirs, a farce called “Over the Garden Wall,” but Knight’s brain was affected; within a few months he suffered a shock of paralysis, and, on July 14, 1892, after much suffering, he died, in Philadelphia. During his illness he was maintained and cared for, with exemplary devotion, by his wife. This was the cast of “Baron Rudolph,” at the Fourteenth Street Theatre: _Rudolph_ George S. Knight. _Whetworth_ Frank Carlyle. _Rhoda_ Carrie Turner. _Owen_ Lin Hurst. _Sheriff_ Frank Colfax. _Ernestine_ Jane Stuart. _General Metcalf_ Charles Bowser. _Judge Merrybone_ M. A. Kennedy. _Geoffrey Brown_ Henry Woodruff. _Allen_ George D. Fawcett. _Nellie Dashwood_ Mrs. George S. Knight. “THE WIFE.” When, in the preceding May, “The Highest Bidder” had been successfully launched, Daniel Frohman, intending the establishment of a permanent stock company at the Lyceum Theatre, began, with Belasco, consideration of plays that might be suitable for production, in the next season, and of actors whom it might prove expedient and feasible to engage for the projected company. No play that seemed to them suitable was found, and Mr. Frohman presently suggested that Belasco should write one. Belasco, somewhat unwillingly,--because of the responsibility involved,--agreed to do so; but while in conference with Mr. Frohman Henry De Mille chanced to enter the office where they were, and the manager, conscious of Belasco’s hesitancy, suggested that he should undertake the new play in collaboration with De Mille. To this Belasco eagerly agreed, and that was the beginning of a long and agreeable association. The co-workers soon repaired to De Mille’s summer home, at Echo Lake, and began work on a play which at first they called “The Marriage Tie,” but which eventually was named “The Wife,”--not a felicitous choice of title, because it had been several times previously used, and, in particular, has long been identified with the excellent comedy of that name by James Sheridan Knowles (1784-1862), first produced in 1833, at Covent Garden, London, and throughout many years by various stars or stock companies in our Theatre. Belasco has written the following account of the manner in which their play of “The Wife” was constructed by De Mille and himself: “A COMMON-SENSE HUSBAND.”