On the other hand he is going to have trouble with his principal stage and put his actors to the inconvenience of playing in a painfully congested area.  Thus, in Mr. Todd’s Experiment, the permanent scene was the hall of a house, with a large tapestry occupying more than half of the wall.  Lurking behind this tapestry was the stage for the tabloids, and the general company had to crowd themselves into the remainder or wander forlornly about in the space in front of the tapestry.  The playlets again are almost bound to be just concentrated episodes, probably elemental in theme and certainly elementary in treatment.

The excuses for their interpolation in Mr. Todd’s Experiment were not marked by a very great subtlety.  There was really none for the first three, which simply relieved Mr. Todd of the tedious recital of the hero’s disillusionments in love.  The next two were introduced by way of illustrating his alleged gift of clairvoyance; and the last served frankly to fill in the interval while the rest of the company was away at dinner.  The general effect of all these desultory little Guignols was perhaps rather cheap, and not very complimentary to the intelligence of those of us who had outgrown a childish penchant for peep-shows.

[Illustration:  Willoughby Todd (Mr. HOLMAN CLARK).  “BE YOUR OLD TRUE SELF.  MAKE THE WOMEN ADORE YOU.”

Arthur John Carrington (Mr. OWEN NARES).  “YOUR ADVICE IS GOOD.  I WILL NOW TAKE OFF MY BEARD AND BE OWEN NARES ONCE MORE.”]

Mr. Todd’s Experiment (for I have spoken only of Mr. HACKETT’S) was to restore a blase and valetudinarian young man of thirty to a proper state of energy by recalling the memories of his past loves and so reviving in him a desire to stand well in the eyes of the sex.  For this purpose he produces (1) a bunch of wood-violets to suggest (through the nose) the environment of his first passion; (2) a specially-tipped brand of cigarettes to revive (through the mouth) the sentiment of his second; and a gramophone record to recover (through the ear) the associations of his third.

So well does he succeed that the hero pulls himself together, shaves off his beard, becomes our OWEN NARES again, and sallies forth, habited for conquest, to pay calls on all the three.  From all the three he retires disillusioned, having found them as egoistic as himself, and in the end finds solace rather shamelessly, in the love of a devoted slave who might have been his for the taking any time in the last several years.