250 A FEW MEMORIES
the stage fetters forever. I was then beginning the tour in England, Ireland, and Scotland that brought my career as an actress to an end in Great Britain. This was in 1888. My last appearance on the Old World side of the ocean was in Dublin, where we were joined by Mr. and Mrs. William Black, and where for a frolic we inveigled the author of "The Strange Adventures of a Phaeton" upon the mimic scene. Once before, on his native heath, Scotland, we had induced him to appear as a mute masked guest in the ballroom scene of "Romeo and Juliet." On that occasion, I remember, he went to the theatre as soon as any of the actors, to dress for his part, though his costume consisted only of a domino and mask. When the scene opened, and he was discovered among a throng of guests, he was struck by a violent attack of stage fright that nailed him to the stage, and kept him there after the others had departed — an unwilling witness of the tender glances of the Veronese lovers. Finally, Tybalt, without Shakespeare's permission, returned to the scene and led him off. In Dublin he was disguised as an ancient peasant in "The Winter's Tale," and the manner in which he strolled about conversing in his own—not Shakespeare's—Ian-ESMOND. Miss RUSSELL. Mr. F. H. MACKLIN. Mr. FULLER MELLISH.