Wichita eagle., 1888-02-24
A HARD PART TO PLAY,


that we are none of us geniuses AND
yet we get on. My three brothers are a.
the present time starring either in thu
provinces or in America; my two eldel
sisters, having strutted and fretted theil
hour upon the stage, are married TO re
spectacle city men; /, Sybil Gascoigne
have acted almost as long as can remem
Der; the little ones, Kate and Dick, are
still at school, but when they leave the
first thing they do will be to look out for
an engagement. don't think we are any
of us very much in love with the profes.
sion; but then why should we bes II
seems to me very hard that an actor is
always supposed to be at high pressure,
Elevate the stage" cultivate the
Masses" educate the popular taste'-
these are the sentiments which are SUD.
posed to be always in the actors breast.
These are the sentences which are forever
in peoples mouths. Now / can't imagine
why an actor more than any one else
should be constantly on stills I have
seen celebrated musician enjoying a
game of poker, and have heard him de-
clare that poker was far preferable to
music. L have seen great painter talk
ing TO city man about stocks and shares
during a learned disquisition upon art,
and no one seemed scandalized. But with
an actor 1t is different Unless he is per-
petually aspiring il will not be forgiven
him that he is an actor.
Now, we Gascoignes took things easily.
OF course there were some parts we liked
better than others, but we played every
thing that came in our way-comedy,
farce, melodrana. My elder sisters quit
ted the stage before they had much time
20 icti ~, nv.
each in turn, on their marriage honored
with paragraph in the principal dramatic
papers, but no one said the stage had sus-
tanned an irreparable loss, or the profess
sion was robbed Of one Of its brightest or
namentS.
was following very much in my sis
ters' footsteps. The critics always spoke
well of me. l never got stating in my
life; but then before the criticism was in
print | could almost have repeated word
for word the phrases that would be used:
Miss Gascoigne was painstaking and in
telligent as usual" ''Tl6 part was safe
in the hands of that promising young ac-
tress, Sybil Gascoigne." With opinions
such as these | was well content. NV
salary was regularly paid; could always
reckon on good engagement, and even if
my profession failed Inc there was Jack
TO fall back upon. And Jack was sub
stantial enough to fall back upon, with
no risk of hArting ones self. He was six
feet two, with broad square shoulders;
and arms-well, when Jacks arms were
round you, you felt as if you didn't want
anything else in the world At least that's
how ! felt, and I've heard lots of girls say
just the same. Jack ought to have been
in the Life Guards, and he would have
been, only wealthy uncle offered to do
something for him, and of course such an
offer was not to be refused; and the
Something" turned out to be that
Jack was to 60 as clerk into the uncle's
business, with a view to partnership, as
the advertisements say. Now, the bust
ness was not pretty nor romantic one
it had something to do with leather
but it was extremely profitable, and as I
looked forward to one day sharing all
Jacks worldly goods didn't grumble at
the leather. Not that Jack had ever vet
said a word to me which l could construe
into downright offer. He had looked,
certainly. But then with eyes like his
there's no knowing what they may imply.
They were dark blue eyes, and his hair
was bright brown with touch of yellow
in 1t, and his mustache was tawny and
his skin was sunburnt to a healthy red
We had been introduced in quite the Or
thodox way. We hadn't fallen in love
across the footlights. He seldom came
TO see me act, but sometimes he'd drop in
to supper, perhaps on his way from din
ner or 10 a dance; and il | could make
him stay with US until il was too late to
go to that dance what a happy girl /
used to bel My mother, with the circum-
spection that belongs to mothers, told me
that he was only flirting, and that I'd bet
ter turn my attention to somebody else.
Somebody else! As If any one were worth
even looking at after Jack Curtis. I
pitied every girl who was engaged because
she wasn't engaged To him. How could ,
my sisters be happy? Resigned, content |
they might be; but to be married and done |
for, and afterward to meet Jack-well, |
imagination failed me to depict the awful |
ness of such a calamity.
1t was quite time he spoke-there could |
be no doubt of that; although Jack Cur |
tbs was too charming to be bound by the
rules which govern ordinary mortals, still |
could not help feeling uneasy and appre-
hensive. How could tell how he carried
on at those gay and festive scenes in which
/ was not included A proud earl's lovely |
daughter might be yearning to bestow her
hand upon him. A duchess might have
marked him for her own Possibly my
jealous fears exaggerated the Importance
of the society in which he moved but it
seemed to me that if Jack had been bid
den 10 a friendly dinner at Buckingham
palace, it was only what his transcendent
qualities merited.
Well, there came night when We ex-
pected Jack to supper, and he appeared
not. Only, in his place, a few lines to
say that he was going TO start at once for
his holiday. A friend had just invited
him TO join him on his yacht. He added
in postscript, ~ viii write later He
did not write. Hours, DAYS, weeks passed,
and not word did we hear.
Its a break off," said nv mother.
consoiingly, lied got tired of us ali
and he thought this the easiest way of let
ting us know. l told you there was an
between him and Isabel
Chisholm; any one could see that with
half an eye' -...... ..-
l turned away shuddering. I
Terrible gales" said my father, rust 1
ling the newspaper, comfortably in his
easy chair. Great disasters among the
shipping. i shouldn't wonder if the
yacht young What's-his- name went in
were to come to grief"
l grew pale and thin and dispirited. I G
knew the ladies OF our company made re-
marks about me. One day overheard
two of them talking. ~ n ~...--, ..., [
'tShe never was much Of ar actress, Z
and now she merely walks through her
part They never had any feeling for art, '
aot one of those Gascoigne girls
No feeling for art! What q low, mean,
;riteful, wicked thing to say. And the
worst of il was that it was SO true re- :