STAGE MANAGING 183 



him in stead. Thus he had seen Got in Poirier ; 

 and his own Poirier, when he came to play it, 

 breathed meritoriously of the model. The last 

 part I saw him play was Triplet, and at first I 

 thought it promised well. But alas ! the boys 

 went for a holiday, missed a train, and were not 

 heard of at home till late at night. Poor Fleeming, 

 the man who never hesitated to give his sons a 

 chisel or a gun, or to send them abroad in a canoe 

 or on a horse, toiled all day at his rehearsal, 

 growing hourly paler, Triplet growing hourly less 

 meritorious. And though the return of the chil- 

 dren, none the worse for their little adventure, 

 brought the colour back into his face, it could not 

 restore him to his part. I remember finding him 

 seated on the stairs in some rare moment of quiet 

 during the subsequent performances. ' Hullo, 

 Jenkin,' said I, ' you look down in the mouth.' — 

 ' My dear boy,' said he, ' haven't you heard me ? 

 I have not one decent intonation from beginning 

 to end.' 



But indeed he never supposed himself an actor ; 

 took a part, when he took any, merely for con- 

 venience, as one takes a hand at whist ; and 

 found his true service and pleasure in the more 

 congenial business of the manager. Augier, 

 Racine, Shakespeare, Aristophanes in Hookham 

 Frere's translation, Sophocles and ^Eschylus in 

 Lewis Campbell's, such were some of the authors 



