Page:Once a Clown, Always a Clown.djvu/139

Rh member of Miss Nethersole's company whispered to me, "Now you have put your foot in it."

In as much as my feet are extensive, I trembled. It smacked of a serious offense. So it was. I had, in fact, annoyed the guest of honor, clumsily forgetting that she had persistently exploited herself as an actress who, while on the stage, lived, not acted, her rôles, with a consequently appalling emotional drain. Her public loved to think of her as being half carried to her dressing room by sympathetic attendants.

As a spectator I have seen a number of unforgettable performances in the theater, among them Edwin Booth in "The Fool's Revenge", Mme. Janauschek as "Brunhild", Joseph Jefferson as "Rip Van Winkle", the elder Salvini's "Othello", Mme. Bernhardt's "Camille" and "Madame X", and Adelaide Neilson's "Juliet." One only of these memories has been effaced. In the glamour of Miss Jane Cowl's Juliet I forgot the performance of the talented English woman. It has been said that no actress is competent to play Juliet until she has reached an age where she has ceased to look the part of that lovely sixteen-year-old daughter of the