Leonard Merrick

“ The process by which the Rector arrived at the alternative is not very plain, but he did arrive at it, and Freddy accordingly went up to town, and ate his dinners, and prepared himself to shine in the profession of all others for which he was the most unfit.
He was a short young man, with a shock of stubborn hair, mild blue eyes, and an expression of amiable innocence. To look a fool, when you are decidedly the reverse, may be very advantageous in life, if you are independent of your neighbours' good opinion ”

“ He only lived to be noticed by her. He was jealous of everybody she spoke to—on the stage and off. He even envied the property-man—for there was sometimes occasion for Miss Bellamy to address a few words to the property-man—to himself alone, the futile prompter, she never had need to speak, nor did he dare to devise an excuse for claiming her attention. ”

“ It does not often fall to the lot of a provincial actress to have a London dramatist in love with her, and as she thought of what Freddy could have done to push her forward, and certainly would have done, it needed all her self-control not to burst into tears. ”

“ Never was there such a startling change known as that which occurred in everybody's bearing towards the prompter! There was only one person who did not come up to him and wring his hand, and "hope he would not forget old friends in his prosperity"; there was only one actress in the provinces who, for years afterwards, was remarked to show a strong distaste when a certain subject of theatrical interest was mentioned. Her name was Miss Maud Bellamy, and the subject was the Rise of "Fluffums." ”

“ Almost every woman not positively tedious has the desire to be unconventional at some period or other, and—conventionality being, after all, a relative standard—for a country' actress to be unconventional is difficult. ”

“ From his humble position in the wings he commanded a good view of the stage, and by and by, when everybody was sure of his part, and there was no need for a prompter's services whatever, a peculiarity was remarked in Fluffums. It was pointed out that he was never absent from his post during Miss Bellamy's big scene. No matter that she, like the rest, was letter-perfect now—no matter how swift a toilette it might necessitate—no sooner did the scene approach than down Fluffums bustled, and stood in the prompt entrance, looking at her with eyes that never wandered from her face. ”

“ He "went out" with the touring company of a London success as prompter, and to play three or four small parts, for twenty-five shillings a week. During the first act he stood in the wings with the book in his hand; and in the second he appeared on the stage as the foreman of a jury. For half of the third he was in the wings again, and then he had a few lines as an Arab sheik, and so on.
They "opened" in Wigan; if anything could have intensified his depression Wigan would have done it; but nothing could. A touring company has more grades and sets than society in Bedford ”

“ The agent was an affable man, but slow—so slow that presently the hundred pounds was only fifty, and in view of the fact, Freddy visited other agents, all of whom seemed strangely to resemble the first gentleman in their characters. ”

“ It was being produced!—in London!—at the Royal West Central Theatre! Woman's Crime,' by Messrs. J. V. King and Frederick Ludlow." The production would introduce a surprising mechanical effect. There had never been so strong a company before even at the West Central—as the one which the enterprising management had secured for "A Woman's Crime." ”

“ The minor periodical died of a weak circulation, and Mr. Frederick Ludlow was out of office.
The cessation of a salary, small as it had been, was a serious matter to him. He made a gallant struggle; he wrote sheafs of short stories, and sent them out broadcast; but as most of the papers that accepted them kept him waiting six months for his money, his industry did not avail him much.
He got into arrears with his landlady, and lay in bed half the day, because he felt his hunger less there. He often dined on a pipe because it was cheaper than a chop ”

“ His future was assured now! "A Woman's Crime" was submitted to one of the best houses in London, and the management was delighted with it, and talked of putting it on next. Somehow, though, when the time came they did not. On the whole, they did not know that it suited them. It was a pity that they had not said so in the first instance; but, albeit a little damped, the authors dispatched it somewhere else.
Here certain alterations were suggested, with the intimation that if they were made the piece would be produced in the spring. Freddy did not approve of the suggestions ”