“THE GRANGE,
“WEST KENSINGTON, W.
“Sunday.

“Most Dear Lady,—­

“I thought all went wonderfully last night, and no sign could I see of hitch or difficulty; and as for your boy, he looked a lovely little gentleman—­and in his cups was perfect, not overdoing by the least touch a part always perilously easy to overdo.  I too had the impertinence to be a bit nervous for you about him, but not when he appeared—­so altogether I was quite happy.

“...  Irving was very noble—­I thought I had never seen his face so beautified before—­no, that isn’t the word, and to hunt for the right one would be so like judicious criticism that I won’t.  Exalted and splendid it was—­and you were you—­YOU—­and so all was well.  I rather wanted more shouting and distant roar in the Bastille Scene—­since the walls fell, like Jericho, by noise.  A good dreadful growl always going on would have helped, I thought—­and that was the only point where I missed anything.

“And I was very glad you got your boy back again and that Mr. Irving was ready to have his head cut off for you; so it had what I call a good ending, and I am in bright spirits to-day, and ever

“Your real friend,

“E.B.-J.”

“I would come and growl gladly.”

There were terrible strikes all over England when we were playing “The Dead Heart.”  I could not help sympathizing with the strikers ... yet reading all about the French Revolution as I did then, I can’t understand how the French nation can be proud of it when one remembers how they butchered their own great men, the leaders of the movement—­Camille Desmoulins, Danton, Robespierre and the others.  My man is Camille Desmoulins.  I just love him.

Plays adapted from novels are generally unsatisfactory.  A whole story cannot be conveyed in three hours, and every reader of the story looks for something not in the play.  Wills took from “The Vicar of Wakefield” an episode and did it right well, but there was no episode in “The Bride of Lammermoor” for Merivale to take.  He tried to traverse the whole ground, and failed.  But he gave me some lovely things to do in Lucy Ashton.  I had to lose my poor wits, as in Ophelia, in the last act, and with hardly a word to say I was able to make an effect.  The love scene at the well I did nicely too.

Seymour Lucas designed splendid dresses for this play.  My “Ravenswood” riding dress set a fashion in ladies’ coats for quite a long time.  Mine was copied by Mr. Lucas from a leather coat of Lord Mohun’s.  He is said to have had it on when he was killed.  At any rate there was a large stab in the back of the coat, and a blood-stain.