Tragedy at Beechcroft by A. Fielding

THE rehearsal was to begin at five o'clock. Up to the last second Santley did not think that things would be ready. "The hour should have been five a.m. to-morrow, not p.m. to-day," he said to Ayres, who, looking very tired, nodded assent, as he staggered along under a load of what the shops call soft furnishings. But Santley was wrong. To the minute, Ayres and Goodenough were able to pull their curtains apart and show the first of the "Pictures," A Rembrandt Interior.

It was a great success. So were the ones that followed. But the honours of that particular part fell to the last. The Spanish Bull-fighter gained the reward of a second's dead silence before it was clapped. There was no invited audience to-day. But those not wanted on the stage or not busy dressing would slip into a seat and watch the stage a minute.