He does not appear too frequently or too long
in any one place; hence he is warmly welcomed wherever and whenever he
returns. He is classed among leading actors, and the ordinary person does
not stop sufficiently long to observe that he is no actor at all.
"This isn't exactly art," he said to me, the other night, with a tinge of
self-rebuke. "But it's success."
And the history of Newgag is the history of many.
XXV
AN OPERATIC EVENING
I
_A Desperate Youth_
The second act of "William Tell" had ended at the Grand Opera House.
The incandescent lights of ceiling and proscenium flashed up, showering
radiance upon the vast surface of summer costumes and gay faces in the
auditorium. The audience, relieved of the stress of attention, became
audible in a great composite of chatter. A host streamed along the aisles
into the wide lobbies, and thence its larger part jostled through the front
doors to the brilliantly illuminated vestibule. Many passed on into the
wide sidewalk, where the electric light poured its rays upon countless
promenaders whose footfalls incessantly beat upon the aural sense.
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