Frank Danby

“ Members of the Cabinet were present, and a knighted actor with an exquisitely overdressed wife. A lame peeress brought an American hanger-on, and a well-known publisher a better-known beauty. There were a few obscure-looking people who had really done things, and many, more prominent ones, who were of no consequence whatever. Keightley Wilbur was always sure of a distinguished first night. The dramatic critics omitted to yawn and explain how bored they were at having to sit through a play, and the representatives of the box offices were present in force. ”

“ Keightley moved away, but found himself little better off at the next resting-place.
"Did you cry?"
"I don't think so."
"You know you did: your eyelids are red now. As for me, I simply howled. There's no actor on the stage like Harry Maingaye. I don't care what he plays. I'd come to see him even if it were in Shakespeare. And he's just as wonderful off the stage. I know a girl who has a friend who met him."
"What do you think of the play? I wonder what is going to happen in the third act? I hope it won't be very long: we are going on to supper at the Carlton." ”

“ It's a dreadful business. Maingaye had hardly left the stage. Nobody seems to know exactly what happened. A shot was heard: Dacre found him lying as we just saw him. The bullet went right through the heart: no one saw who fired it. You can't recollect when poor Terriss was assassinated, can you? It was something in the same way, only Terriss was stabbed, not shot. That was by a madman, so must this have been. I daresay the police have the man by now. They were sent for at once. You must try and pull yourself together."
Keightley had to pretend he was not startled nor unduly shocked. ”

“ Keightley Wilbur was not himself to-day, or he would not have spoken so rudely. "I believe the whole thing to be 'The Moving Finger Writes.' I believe—— Why do you think it was to me the murderer was shown, that he came to me?"
"Because you were at the emergency exit, and he had to get back into the house somehow whilst the police were searching outside," David answered.
"You have neither faith nor imagination: I have both. I am going to clear the reputation of Susanne O'Neill." ”

“ Nothing like this had ever been known in the annals of the English stage. Harry Maingaye shot! Assassinated! But such things don't happen in England—it was incredible! Weeping women filled the hall: men's faces were white and shocked.
The newspapers the next day had big headlines and columns of conjecture. A full account of the tragedy was given, and great bewilderment expressed as to how the assassin could have escaped. The police were blamed, and the Conservative papers wrote about the "fostering of class hatred" and "Limehouse." ”

“ Comtesse Inez de Brissac was not mentioned; the English Press, whatever its shortcomings, knows how to be silent when the relations of man and woman are in question.
Mrs. Harry Maingaye, on the other hand, who was well known under her nom de théâtre of Susanne O'Neill, was interviewed, but had little or nothing to say. She expressed her horror of the assassin, and did not know where the police could have been to let him escape them. She said, "Harry has not an enemy in the world as far as I know." No interviewer could get any more from her. ”

“ For be it known that when a Keightley Wilbur completes a play he has not the same difficulty as lesser men in placing it. The name counted, of course, but beyond the name was the salient fact that there was no pecuniary risk. Our leading American impressario fathered the production. The Fin de Siècle Theatre and a really fine caste was secured. Harry Maingaye, handsomest and most popular of actors, was engaged for the leading part. ”

“ Harry Maingaye, when he first burst upon the metropolis, had been known as "The Schoolgirl's Dream." The phrase had gone out of fashion, but not the man. His photographs were sold by the hundred thousand, and his fascinations were as frequently the topic of conversation among the ladies of Brixton and Clapham as the terminological inexactitudes of prominent politicians among their fathers and brothers.
On the first night of the production of the new play Keightley's mother and Lady Seddon-Battye occupied the stage box, with Sir Audley ponderously between them. ”

“ John Salmon, the Westminster coroner, opened an inquest on the body of Mr. Henry Lepel Mings, better known as Harry Maingaye, the popular actor who was fatally shot outside the private entrance to the Fin de Siècle Theatre in Maiden Lane, on the 17th inst. Mr. White watched the case on behalf of the lessee of the theatre: Mr. Keats for the Maingaye family.
The jury having viewed the body, which lay in the mortuary adjacent to St. Martin's Church, Susanne O'Neill, otherwise Mings, or Maingaye, was called, and stated she had identified the body as that of her late husband, Henry Lepel Mings. ”

“ Until he spoke, the jury, and apparently the public, had known nothing of any family matters in Harry Maingaye's life that required suppressing.
The coroner said dryly that they had better call the next witness.
Mr. Stanley Dacre, who had played the title rôle in According to Cocker, deposed that he was in Mr. Maingaye's dressing-room when Harry came off the stage at the end of the second act. He appeared in the best of spirits, and they talked a little about the play and its reception. A note was brought in, and after Harry had glanced at it he said: "Oh, damn the woman!" ”

“ The stage manager knew Harry Maingaye was dead, but he put that in. "As you may imagine, behind the scenes the shock has been very great. Miss Hooper is in the deepest distress, quite unable to resume her part. The tragedy has struck us all. But we are the servants of the public. ”

“ Any suspicion that has been aroused in the long course of this inquiry has been suspicion only, lacking verification. It would be idle to deny, gentlemen, that a very painful story has been indicated, but fortunately it is not one which it is any part of your or my duty to investigate or upon which to comment. It is to be hoped that further investigation will reveal the truth and lead to the conviction of the criminal."
He then directed them to their verdict, which ran, as had been anticipated, "Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown." ”

“ The stage manager came up, and in a few hurried words it was decided Keightley should speak to the impatient house.
"Give them their choice. Ask if we shall go on with an understudy. Isn't it awful? I hope they've got the man." ”