The record-union., 1897-09-26

fever! AS 1 was coming down to the
theater half a dozen men stopped me
to tell me that Ruthven was dead"
My dear Trotter, would you like to
step down stairs and ask the man him
self if he is dead?"
No He moved across the room
with an unmistakable shudder. Not
for worlds. lit will be time enough
to meet him when we meet upon the
stage. Ince, do you know that I half
believe that I am going mad?"
This was pleasant hearing. Trotter
who was at once manager and leading
actor, half believed he was going mad.
l myself believed in Ruthven's mad
ness. So that it only required that [
should be attacked with sudden soften
ing Of the brain to make a trio
On all first nights everybody behind
is in a state of what may mildly be
be termed nervous excitement They
may not always show it, but they al
ways are. AS regards nervous excite
ment, that first night eclipsed the rec
ord. OF those principally concerned,
was the coolest. When I mention that
to the best Of my judgment and belief,
my temperature was about two hun
dred degrees in the shade, that fact
speaks volumes. had serious
thoughts, even at the last moment, of
enforcing a postponement of the whole
| affair. But l didn't"
The curtain rose; the play began. The
scene of the first act was laid in room
in common lodging house in the East
End of London. There was a good
deal Of business. The dodgers were
coming and going. The principal
theme of their conversation was a
great crime which had just been COM
mftted in one of the suburbs There
was one there who listened-a woman;
and as she listened she knew who had
done it-she recognized his workman
ship. AS they talked of the large re-
ward which had been offered for the
! discovery of the criminal, a great hun
ger began to fill her soul, and a desire
to rise out of the depths into which she
had sunk, and to attain to comparative
influence by means-of the price Of
blood This guilty man had been her
lover. She loved him still. But she
told herself that he was doomed-doom-
ed! Some one would gain by his eter-
nal fall; and why not she? AS she
went off on her errand the man him
| self, against whom all mems hands
would soon be turned, came on. This
| was Blaise TOwnshend, known to his
then associates as Gentleman Jo" He
was a man who had been buffeted and
torn-a genius gone wrong, an inventor
none of whose inventions had attained
fruition. Crammed fun of ideas which
! seemed all to be abortions, the devil
had got into him-that devil which
| comes to disappointed and hungry men,
an, extreme in everything, he had sunk
to this-to crime
| While the opening was being played,
| like a restless spirit l was wandering
about behind.
! The call was passed for Mr. Ruth
ven. AS he came 1 shrank away, SO
| marvelously did his appearance real
ize the creation of my fancy-the man
with a devil. 1t was difficult to be-
lieve that this was the Iifeless creature
who had drOned through the rehearsals.
| Two minutes after his entrance the
| house was in a tumult of appaluse. He
had done what every actor hopes to do
one day, and scarcely which one in a
! generation does dO-he had taken his
Iaudience by storm. Instead of the dis
aster which l feared it already seemed
that l was within measurable distance
of that stupendous, that fairy-Hke, that
world-echoing success for which we
work, and of which we dream.
After Ruthvens entrance the action
moved quickly. He was left alone with
the journals, whose columns were filled
with the story of his crime. He glOated
over the hideous details with a sort of
| devilish eXultation. While he was thus
engaged a visitor entered, an unusual
visitor in those parts-a lawyer who
| had brought him news-news of the
! death of a distant relative who had
died in a far-off portion of the world,
and who had left him one of those i'm
measurable fortunes which are charac-
| teristic Of the day. The lawyer had
come in person to offer his congratula-
| tions, and already the shadow of the
! gallows was falling over him. And
while the tale is being told the woman
returns from her Judas errand and
hears it all. She has sold the man she
loves, this ten times millionaire, for a
mess of pottage. Already the avengers
of blood are at his heels.
When the curtain fell the audience
gave Ruthven a call which shook the
theater. 1t was his success, not mina
his acting which told, not that of his
companion. 1 went on to the stage to
shake him by the hand; but he walked
past me as though he did not see that
was there.
| "Ruthven!" 1 cried.
If he heard he paid no heed. Walk
| ing straight on, he vanished out of
sight His demeanor was so strange
that 1 hardly knew what to make of it.
Trotter was standing by me; he had
been acting the lawyer.
He is either a genius of the first
water, or else the Old Gentleman him
self When l was telling him that
story about the fortune which had been
left to him, the look upon his face made
my blood run cold"
Il believe" said Gordon, that he is
the Old Gentleman
He has made me all of tremble, y
declared Miss Stacey She had played
the woman who betrayed Blaise Towns
hend. Il really don't think 1 can 60
on with him again; he frightens me-
She sank into a chair and burst into
something very like Mysteries. 1 pooh
pohhed their words as nonsense. l hur-
ried them off to their dressing
but I declined Trotter's invitation to
accompany him up stairs; I went out
into the street to get a breath of fresh
air. u myself was haunted with the
feeling that there was something about