The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-12-02
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By GEORGE HENRY PAYNE

not even done him the courtesy t. give him a seat and had only admitted him because he was anxious to givt the house the appearance of being full. In the course of the following act the young author seized the op portunity to whisper to Dora that h. wanted to see her the next day ant tell her of the gladsome news that ht had received on his arrival.
 Since the time when Willard Hol comb had first met Dora Fullerton or the stage he had taken on a new anc greater purpose. He was admittedly . young man of great ability; but, as one of his friends had described him he was particularly disqualified fol success by lack of direction" He had educated himself, had studied law in office and university and also some medicine, had written an amusing boof on chess-a feat in itself-had served in the army and been 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 maL' 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 percentage 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 ovel 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 'tgreenness"-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 of to o1 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 GreeA
 
 nelia.
 "My play has been accepted" said HOlcOmb, with an intellectual genu- | fexiOn. when he had ordered lunch | that was admirable in it's omissions He had not reached the high point of dramaturgy that is gastronomically | marked by the intrusions of soup and game and calculated to rouse the ire | of gormandic genealogy stretching from Athanaeus to Vatel. "Yes?' Dora was genuinely, truly 1 interested, and, cursed as she was with | the name that Dickens sacrificed in | the fire of fiction, she was moved only | by woman's best instinct to see a 1 man she liked, if not loved, reach hts | goal.
 II want you to play the leading part" he added.
 | The lunch, Holcomb, everything swan about Dora for a moment. The statement and the emotion that it | aroused had the same quality that the lyrical conception has in it the poet. It hit her, as Dr. Holmes would havd | SdlO, llhC d pullct III tue DdCk OI the | head"
 "You know," said HolcOmb to Dora, "I have done a great many things in | my life, but the thing that have most wanted to do was play-that is, to | put play on the stage and have 8 real audience pass Judgment on 1t. l have come very near production 8 number of times, but the managers al ways had some excuse or other for sending back my manuscript. In a way I feel that I owe this first pro- duction to you. While we were re hearsing my manuscript was sent back to me. They said that the woman in it was not real and asked if I could get a real woman in it; if so, it would
 be good play. All the time we were rehearsing I was studying you and writing, and before we left New York I had practically rewritten my play So, you see. that is why I want you tt | play the leading part"
 It was a few minutes before Dora was really able to join in the conver satiOn.
 "But you have never told me ths story, and yet you say that you have altered the leading part to make Ii |