The Press., 1910-12-28

Rouge.'"
 'eThat, my boy" said vavin, laying his hand on his shoulder-"tha was a good play, but it was written by a sour heart"
 Dora insisted that Holcomb should see the rest of the play out with them, an invitation that he accepted grate- fully, inasmuch as the manager of the theater, who had passed him in, had not even done him the courtesy to give him a seat and had only admitted him because he was anxious to give the house the appearance of being full. Tn the course of the following act the young author seized the op- portunity to whisper to Dora that he wanted to see her the next day and tell her of the gladsome news that he had received on his arrival.
 Since the time when Willard Hol- comb had first met Dora Fullerton on the stage he had taken on new and greater purpose. He was admittedly a young man of great ability; but, as one of his friends had described him, he was particularly disqualified for success by a lack of direction" He had educated himself, had studied law in office and university and also some medicine, had written an amusing book on chess-a feat in itself-had served in the army and been a war core spondent, had written musical criti- cism and now, at the age of thirty three, was an actor with the very strong conviction that, following the example of Aeschylus, Shakespeare and Moliere, he could learn to write great play only by an acceptable familiarity not alone with the pen, but with the grease paint stick.
 He had fallen early in his brief stage career under the influence of Ludlow Holly Ludlow, "the best leading man in America" and undoubtedly the most brilliant conversationalist among stage folk. What Holly said today was the talk of the town" tomorrow. Thus as ''the town" do actors describe the few clubs, cafes or other rendezvous that they hold particularly their own. Soon- CT or later these epigrams or witticisms would drift into print, and after awhile any bright saying that seemed to lose caste because of lack of parentage was credited to the man of easy tongue and easier sense of responsibility.
 Unknown to Dora, Ludlow and Hol- comb had had their first clash over her. The former, who was really in- formed in certain lines of psychology, had playfully remarked that despite Miss Fullerton's simplicity, sincerity and ingenuousness - he also added "greenness"-she simply moved by the geological law that sent the best rep resentative of her species, the feline, out into the social night. Holcomb, a younger man, usually laughed at Hol- | ly's characterizations. Now he turned sharply.
 '"The trouble with you, Ludlow" he said, dropping the affectionate abbre- viation of Holly, "is that you don't realize that nature in that regard is memorable, and the matter gets to the fundamental question of quality"
 "As serious as that, is it?" was HOl. ly's would be testing remark.
 "As serious as that" replied HOl. comb, and from that time on they jest ed no more on that or any other sub ject.
 The day after their meeting at the theater Miss Fullerton and MT. Hol comb met at lunch as per agreement There was an amplitude of formality throughout the function that would have satisfied anything less than the overdeveloped and specialized Greei sense of fate that obsessed Aunt Cor nelia -.---.
 My play has been accepted" said Hnlcomb, with an intellec611ql genu flexion. when he had ordered lzAAcr that was admirable in it's oEhissions He had not reached the high point o- dramaturgy that is gastronomicalls marked by the intrusions of soup ant game and calculated to rouse the irt of gormandic genealogy stretching from Athanaeus to Vatel.
 ''Yes?" Dora was genuinely, truly interested, and, cursed as she was witl the name that Dickens sacrificed il the fire of fiction, she was moved only by woman's best instinct to see man she liked, if not loved, reach hi goal.
 q want you to play the leading part" he added.
 The lunch, Holcomb, everything swam about Dora for moment. I'm statement and the emotion that 1 aroused had the same quality that thu lyrical conception has in it the poet It hit her, as Dr. Holmes would hav' said, like a bullet in the back of tn, head"
 "You know" said Holcomb to Dora q have done a great many things il my life, but the thing that have mos wanted to do was a play-that is, t put play on the stage and have real audience pass judgment on it.
 have come very near production number of times, but the managers al ways had some excuse or other fo l