rents awoke next Morning to discover that Lady Macbeth was
boarding with them.

When she moved from one Room to another, the Portieres had to be spread
the entire length of the Pole, so as to make Room for her Head.

A local Haberdasher, who had been plotting to surround her with a new
Bungalow and a lot of Mission Furniture, went to call as per Usual and
found her away Up Stage, trying to look like Margaret Anglin in the Big
Scene.

She was too busy to Hold Hands, for she was mapping out a Career which
terminated with an Electric Sign on Broadway and the Street jammed with
up-town Limousines.

So the Gents' Furnisher moved down the Street to a Brick House, the
unmarried Inmates of which would begin burning Greek Fire and sending
up Balloons every time a Live One slammed the Front Gate.

Lila had the Bacillus Theatricus gnawing in every part of her System.

She could see the magnificent Play House crowded from Pit to Dome, just
as the Producing Manager sees it every August when the Pipe is drawing
freely.

She could hear the Leading Man in the Dress Suit say, as he pointed up
the Marble Stairway, "Ah, here comes the Countess Zika now." And then
She would enter trippingly, wearing $900 worth of spangled Raiment,
whereupon the Vast Audience would stand up and Cheer.

Whilst enjoying this Trance she wore a Yellow Kimono and had her Meals
sent to the Room.

Father saw that she was Hooked, so he loaded her into a Parlor Car and
took her up to a School of Dramatic Art to have her searched for Talent.

The Head Crimp of this refined Shake-Down watched her do the Scene in
which Ophelia goes Dotty and picks the imaginary Dandelions, and when
it was all over and Shakespeare had been reduced to a Pulp, he slapped
old Ready Money on the Back and told him his Daughter was a Phenom.

She had the Dramatic Instinct and the Fire of Genius and that
indefinable Something which enables Eva Tanguay to earn more than the
President of the United States.

With a couple of hundred Lessons in Correct Breathing, and the Vocal
Cords loosened up with a Glove-Stretcher, and a row of Scallops put on
the Technique, Mary Anderson would be right back in our midst.

So Lila got ready to fill the Vacancy caused by the Retirement of Ellen
Terry, while Papa went back to the little Office in one corner of the
Ware-House and began to sign Checks.

It took many an Egg to have Lila properly Conservatoried.

At last she came home with a Diplom