I could not help it—­I turned my head to see if the “graven image” could really laugh.  Yes, he was moving! his face wore some faint expression; but—­but he was turning slowly to the laughing audience, and the expression on his face was one of wonder!

Matthews groaned aloud, the curtain fell, and Daly was upon us.  Matthews said the cause of the whole business was that man in the box; while Mr. Daly angrily declared, “The man in the box could have nothing to do with the affair, since he was deaf and dumb, and had been all his life.”

I remember sitting down very hard and very suddenly.  I remember that Davidge, who was an Englishman, “blasted” a good many things under his breath; and then Mr. Matthews, exclaiming with wonder, told us he had been playing for years in a farce where this very scene was enacted, the whole play consisting in the actors’ efforts to win the approbation of a man who was a deaf mute.

So once more a play was found to reflect a situation in real life.

[Illustration:  Charles Matthews]

CHAPTER III

IN CONNECTION WITH “DIVORCE” AND DALY’S_

“Divorce” had just settled down for its long run, when one evening I received a letter whose weight and bulk made me wonder whether the envelope contained a “last will and testament” or a “three-act play.”  On opening it I found it perfectly correct in appearance, on excellent paper, in the clearest handwriting, and using the most perfect orthography and grammar:  a gentleman had nevertheless gently, almost tenderly, reproached me for using the story of his life for the play.

He said he knew Mr. Daly’s name was on the bills as author; but as I was an Ohio woman, he of course understood perfectly that I had furnished Mr. D. with his story for the play.  He explained at great length that he forgave me because I had not given Mr. Daly his real name, and also remarked, in rather an aggrieved way, that he had two children and only one appeared in the play.  He also seemed considerably surprised that Mr. Harkins (who played my husband) did not wear a large red beard, as every one, he said, knew he had not shaved for years.

My laughter made its way over the transom, and in a moment my neighbour was at the dressing-room door, asking for something she did not need, that she might find out the why and wherefore of the fun; and when the red beard had started her off, another came for something she knew I didn’t own, and she too fell before the beard; while a third writhed over the forgiveness extended to me, and exclaimed:—­

“Oh, the well-educated idiot, isn’t he delicious?”

By and by the letter started to make a tour of the gentlemen’s rooms, and, unlike the rolling-stone that gathered no moss, it gathered laughter as it moved.

It was only Mr. Daly who astonished me by not laughing.  He, instead, seemed quite gratified that his play had so clearly reflected a real life story.