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4-8                                    A   FEW  MEMORIES
daughter's abilities, she had better begin at once. Be on your guard" (to me); " I shall observe every look and tone and criticise your work unsparingly." In spite of his discouraging manner and words, I went through the potion scene of " Romeo and Juliet," forgetting the stern critic entirely after the first few lines. When I had finished his manner had changed. He remained for several hours, acting with me scenes from all the plays I knew.
After months of rehearsing with the dumb bust in my imaginary theatre, it was with an indescribable emotion that I found myself acting for the first time with a living, breathing Colonna, Claude, Macbeth. After our first interview, which began so unpromisingly, he was kind enough to propose our reading or acting scenes from Shakespeare daily together. He likewise took us all to the first rehearsal \ve had ever seen. On entering at the back of the auditorium, I could not realize that the barren, dusky, barn-like opening before me was the stage I had always thought the most glittering and romantic place in the world. As to the play, I have never seen it performed, and to this day have no idea what it is about The actors, book in hand, mumbled their parts indistinct-