nt vanity of Mr. Triplet came
out strong. Submissively, but obstinately, he fought for the discarded
beauties. Unluckily, he did this one day that his patroness was in one
of her bitter humors. So she instantly gave him back his manuscript,
with a sweet smile owned herself inferior in judgment to him, and left
him unmolested.

Triplet breathed freely; a weight was taken off him. The savage steel
(he applied this title to the actress's scissors) had spared his
_purpurei panni._ He was played, pure and intact, a calamity the rest of
us grumbling escape.

But it did so happen that the audience were of the actress's mind, and
found the words too exuberant, and the business of the play too scanty
in proportion. At last their patience was so sorely tried that they
supplied one striking incident to a piece deficient in facts. They gave
the manager the usual broad hint, and in the middle of Triplet's third
act a huge veil of green baize descended upon "The Jealous Spaniard."

Failing here, Mrs. Woffington contrived often to befriend him in his
other arts, and moreover she often sent Mr. Triplet what she called a
snug investment, a loan of ten pounds, to be repaid at Doomsday, with
interest and compound interest, according to the Scriptures; and,
although she laughed, she secretly believed she was to get her ten
pounds back, double and treble. And I believe so too.

Some years later Mrs. Triplet became eventful. She fell ill, and lay
a dying; but one fine morning, after all hope had been given up, she
suddenly rose and dressed herself. She was quite well in body now, but
insane.

She continued in this state a month, and then, by God's mercy, she
recovered her reason; but now the disease fell another step, and lighted
upon her temper--a more athletic vixen was not to be found. She had
spoiled Triplet for this by being too tame, so when the dispensation
came they sparred daily. They were now thoroughly unhappy. They were
poor as ever, and their benefactress was dead, and they had learned to
snap. A speculative tour had taken this pair to Bristol, then the second
city in England. They sojourned in the suburbs.

One morning the postman brought a letter for Triplet, who was showing
his landlord's boy how to plant onions. (N. B.--Triplet had never
planted an onion, but he was one of your _a priori_ gentlemen, and could
show anybody how to do anything.) Triplet held out his hand for the
letter, but the postman held out his hand