l the time. By the time I got to the door
Bruce-Banquo was saying to the witches, "If you can look into the
seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will
not,"--those lines that stir anyone's imagination with their veiled
vision of the universe.

The overall lighting was a little dim (afternoon fading already?--a
_late_ matinee?) and the stage lights flickery and the scenery still a
little spectral-flimsy. Oh, my mind-wavery fits can be lulus! But I
concentrated on the actors, watching them through the entrance-gaps in
the wings. They were solid enough.

Giving a solid performance, too, as I decided after watching that
scene through and the one after it where Duncan congratulates Macbeth,
with never a pause between the two scenes in true Elizabethan style.
Nobody was laughing at the colorful costumes. After a while I began to
accept them myself.

Oh, it was a different _Macbeth_ than our company usually does. Louder
and faster, with shorter pauses between speeches, the blank verse at
times approaching a chant. But it had a lot of real guts and everybody
was just throwing themselves into it, Sid especially.

* * * * *

The first Lady Macbeth scene came. Without exactly realizing it I
moved forward to where I'd been when I got my three shocks. Martin is
so intent on his career and making good that he has me the same way
about it.

The Thaness started off, as she always does, toward the opposite side
of the stage and facing a little away from me. Then she moved a step
and looked down at the stage-parchment letter in her hands and began
to read it, though there was nothing on it but scribble, and my heart
sank because the voice I heard was Miss Nefer's. I thought (and almost
said out loud) _Oh, dammit, he funked out, or Sid decided at the last
minute he couldn't trust him with the part. Whoever got Miss Nefer out
of the ice cream cone in time?_

Then she swung around and I saw that no, my God, it _was_ Martin, no
mistaking. He'd been using her voice. When a person first does a part,
especially getting up in it without much rehearsing, he's bound to
copy the actor he's been hearing doing it. And as I listened on, I
realized it was fundamentally Martin's own voice pitched a trifle
high, only some of the intonations and rhythms were Miss Nefer's. He
was showing a lot of feeling and intensity too and real Martin-type
poise. _You're off to a great start, kid_, I cheered inwar