BEFORE AND BEHIND THE FOOTLIGHTS. 229 



stopper on him at tlie end of half-an-liour^ I verily 

 believe my friend would have died from exhaustion 

 caused by over much laughter. Carey's medicine did 

 him no end of good. 



Mr. Frank Thornton stayed at the Queen's when 

 playing " The Private Secretary '' at the Royal. One 

 night we were roused from sweet repose by hearing 

 noises in Mr. Thornton's room. 



I rushed out, and opening his door saw the Rev. 

 Robert Spalding doing a rat hunt round the bed-room 

 with an umbrella' in one hand and a candle in the 

 other. He was in, not his surplice, but a garment 

 resembling it in colour. 



He implored me not to spoil sport, so I left him 

 to it. » 



Mr. Thornton was very amusing off the stage as 

 well as on. I was at the Royal, in a side box, one 

 night with a friend. During the course of the play, 

 ^' The Private Secretary," Mr. Cattermole sits heavily 

 down on the lid of a box in which the Rev. Spalding 

 takes refuge. Mr. Harwood played Cattermole, and 

 he nearly squeezed Frank Thornton to death when he 

 got into the box. 



Thornton, when he took refuge under a table, 

 spied us in the box. He could not be seen by the 

 audience. The grimaces he made and the manner in 

 which he expressed how he had been jammed in the 

 box, made us roar with laughter. 



