Page:Abroad with Mark Twain and Eugene Field.djvu/195

 'the chastest and most expressive of dancers, who restored to us the lost wonders of Greek mimicry.'"

"I hear she is about to open her own theatre in Paris now," announced the Standard critic.

"That's the stuff," said Mark. "Loie, like myself—both red-headed—knew that ambition is a horse that more than one can ride. I grabbed that idea 'way back in the seventies when Artemus Ward came down lecturing Virginia way. Art was a success and I liked the lordly nonchalance with which he spent two or three hundred dollars on a tear. I helped him spend plenty, I assure you, but when Art and the brown taste in my mouth had gone, I took stock.

"'Sam,' I said to myself, quite familiar-like, 'Sam, your mental adipose is as good as his, and in originality you can beat him dead.'

"After these encouraging remarks, I set to work making good," concluded Mark. 191