"But you won't have the opportunity," the girl rejoined. "No, this is your party, and you must be as agreeable and entertaining as you possibly can. You may begin by telling me all about the actors to-night. Why does the star choose to play such a part as old Sly? It surely isn't the star part, is it?" "It is the tradition--or years ago it used to be. Very few actors do it now; in fact, this is the first time I've seen the star play it for years. It's well done, too, and I haven't seen it well done since old George Clark had his last curtain. This man is a good man." "He is indeed. I noticed in the _Transcript_ he was English. Is she his wife? I gathered that she was." "Yes. They've been playing together in London for several years now, and this is their first trip to America. I fancy that he is the real brains and ability of the combination, and her reputation seems mainly to rest on adding obedience and decorative embellishment to his effects. And she certainly is decorative, don't you think?" "Yes--in a certain way. Tell me--do they always play Shakespeare? I was in London two years ago, but I don't recall hearing anything about them at that time. I should think I would if they'd been there." "That's odd. I should surely have thought you'd have heard of them. They've been well known over there for some years. I suppose, though, they play the provinces, like every one else. No, they don't play Shakespeare all the time, by any means; they couldn't do it and live." "You mean that they couldn't get audiences? Why, some actors do. Mantell, for instance--and Sothern and Marlowe. They seem to go on year after year, and they must be at least moderately successful, or they wouldn't keep it up." "Mantell ought to; he is a real actor--of the traditional school, of course--but great, all the same. It has always seemed to me that his Lear was one of the fine performances of the stage to-day. But even Mantell has to travel halfway across the country every season; he couldn't stay in New York--no, nor in intellectual and appreciative Boston, either. And I doubt whether a man would fare much better trying to play nothing but Shakespeare in London. No, this man can play virtually anything; he made his first big hit--in recent years, that is--playing Maldonado in Pinero's 'Iris.'" "But go back to Sothern and Marlowe. They go on Shakespearing, world without end." "If you can call it Shakespeare. I have never been able to see much in their way of doing it. Marlowe does some things well, but I confess that to see her now as Juliet is too great a strain on me. As for Sothern, he's a good romantic actor, but not a Shakespearean one." "They play this---'The Taming of the Shrew'--do they not? It seems to me they were here last spring."