Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-11-16
BY Elizabeth McCracken.
(Copyright, 1903, by w. r. Hearst.)

The theater was empty and dimly
lighted. Even the doors leading to the
unreserved seats of the second balcony
had not yet been opened. Seton smiled
slightly as he passed through the main
entrance and made his way to the
second balcony. He could scarcely do
less than convict himself of whimsic-
ality in preparing to spend an entire
afternoon in viewing another persons
performance from an unreSeryed seat.
Seton's w parts were usually siren
nous to such a degree that he gave
but n matinee a week. He nae not
often devoted his consequent leisure to
the matinee performances of stars; but
1atterly his leisure had become of lit
tie value, and he gave it freely to the
pursuit Of any fancy which promised
momentary diversion.
Finding q seat in the fourth row, he
dropped into ii and took out a news
paper, but the light was SO dim that,
after q moments s~training, he let the
paper fall to the floor. He sighed some
b impatiently, II looked at his
watch.
Presently the audience began to as
semble, singly and in small groups;
the lights increased in number, n the
members Of the orchestra began tun-
ing their instruments.
When the crowd poured into the Sec
ond balcony he opened his eyes and
watched with interest it's struggle for
seats. The second balcony Of a the
ater would seem to possess the power
to awaken, yer in persons not usually
addicted to jostling and pushing, that
primitive instinct which would award
the best to him who first can seize it.
Seton looked at the crowd with curious
pleasure and wondered if in any other
part of the theatcr such eager antic-
Anott-~ n,,,II L., Pound 10 rnnnt11ntnI
as to the reasons for the marked n
thusiasm Of the people who rushed
past him, never suspecting that the
faint bohemianism' Of the second bal
cony has OF itself an alluring charm
and incites independently a youthful
hilarity utterly out of the question in
q proscenium box.
mo wonder they call it a rush." he
said aloud. To his surprise, his neigh
Dor on the left, a middle-aged woman,
with a careworn face, replied:
mo, it's not Il wonder" she re-
marked. such pushing | never saw
and they call this a civilized country"
The pushing is part OF the fun" he
heard a girl back of him say, with a
laugh, to her companion. Seton smiled
at this revelation. He had been about
to conclude that the fun was the COM
pensatiOn for the pushing.
The fun was none the less large and
genuine. He had come to look at the
play from the standpoint of the people
in the second balcony, but he found
himself looking at nothing SO much as
the people themselves. They were so
diverse; they ranged from newsbOys to
college instructors, from not very well
bred schoolgirls to women who were
even distinctive in appearance, and
they were equally, If as diVerseiy, in
terested in the performance.
Seton glanced from the Woman on his
left to his ncighbor on the right, who
was also a woman. She was intent up
on the performance; and Seton's glance
heightened almost into a stare. Her
I'M of looking at the play was I'M
like that Of any other person whom he
had seen in the balcony. She was
seeking the causes Of its effects.
To Seton, a member OF the profession,
This was almost instantly apparent.
When the audience laughed. she did not
laugh; she knitted her brows and riy-
eted her attention the more colsely
upon the stage. When a scene was
Interrupted by an Involuntary outburst
OF applause, she leaned forward in
more intense interest.
She is an acress or a playwright
she might be either" Seton thought.
He glanced again at her.
Her utter absorption in the play and
the varying OF her expressions as she
Watched it alone gave her a certain
beauty. In addition. her hair was soft
and dark, and she had blue Irish eyes.
The distance from the line of her Eyes
to the tilt Of her chin was artiStically
short, and her mouth had q Wistful
sweetness and harm which also sug-
gested an Irish ancestry. She was
leaning forward, but Seton guessed
that her height was above the average.
''Cha Il,l-, ,,,n,,o l;l-n q I, q ptracc than
a playwright" he thought, as he con-
templated her. she is almost beauti-
full; and she has a most professional
way of looking at a play. 1t did not
occur to him that she might indie
p~endently and unprofessionally have
possessed both beauty and that critical
appreciation which would ~presuppose a
personal professional interest.
He looked at her very nearly as in
tenly as she looked at the stage. She
appeared so oblivious of anything but
the stage that he forgot to be guarded;
and when she turned Unexpectedly and
looked at him, without allowing him
time to turn his head he was for an
instant confused. In the same instant
he observed that the curtain. was de-
scending and that her attention had
naturally been taken from the stage.
There was no shade of annoyance in
her expression as she glanced at him.
To his surprise she started very slight
iy; and her face softened as she turned
1t away from him. He supposed that
she had recognized him, and he was the
more convinced that she belonged To
the profession, for he was aware that
very few persons who had known him
only on the stage recognized him when
they saw him off 1t. He did not know
that the girl who saw an act of a play
with such quick and clear ~intentness
had as intently seen his face and had
been startled and moved by its drawn
and haggard lines.
She was younger than her appear
ance and her keen intentness had sug-
gested to Seton. At the end of the next
act she turned and spoke to him, with
a singular lack OF convention in which
there was yet not the slightest lack OF
dignity and breeding. If she felt any
need of justification of the
ton other than the mans face she
found 1t possibly in the fact that she
was in the second balcony.
Don't You think this rather a re-
markable play?" she said.
Seton could not see in the question
anything which strengthened his the
DRY nat she was a member of his pro-
fession or his supposition that she had
recognized him. AS most persons re-
garded the particular play as rather
remarkable, he could, in fact, see moth
Ing in her criticism especially indica-