on
Chest."

While Henry was occupying himself with "Werner" I was pleasing myself
with "The Amber Heart," a play by Alfred Calmour, a young man who was
at this time Wills' secretary. I wanted to do it, not only to help
Calmour, but because I believed in the play and liked the part of
Ellaline. I had thought of giving a matinee of it at some other
theatre, but Henry, who at first didn't like my doing it at all, said:
"You must do it at the Lyceum. I can't let you, or it, go out of the
theatre."

So we had the matinee at the Lyceum. Mr. Willard and Mr. Beerbohm Tree
were in the cast, and it was a great success. For the first time Henry
saw me act--a whole part and from the "front," at least, for he had
seen and liked scraps of my Juliet from the "side." Although he had
known me such a long time, my Ellaline seemed to come quite as a
surprise. "I wish I could tell you of the dream of beauty that you
realised," he wrote after the performance. He bought the play for me,
and I continued to do it "on and off," in England and in America,
until 1902.

Many people said that I was good, but that the play was bad. This was
hard on Alfred Calmour. He had created the opportunity for me, and few
plays with the beauty of "The Amber Heart" have come my way since. "He
thinks it's all his doing!" said Henry. "If he only knew!" "Well,
that's the way of authors!" I answered. "They imagine so much more
about their work than we put into it that although we may seem to the
outsider to be creating, to the author we are, at our best, only doing
our duty by him!"

Our next production was "Macbeth"; but meanwhile we had visited
America three times. In the next chapter I shall give an account of my
tours in America, of my friends there; and of some of the impressions
that the vast, wonderful country made on me.

[Illustration]

FOOTNOTES:

[41] _Copyright, 1908, by Ellen Terry_ (_Mrs. Carew_)

[42] Madame: Avec Olivia vous m'avez donne bonheur et peine. _Bonheur_
par votre art qui est noble et sincere--_peine_ car je sens tristesse
au coeur de voir une belle et genereuse nature de femme, donner son
ame a l'art--comme vous le faites--quand c'est la vie meme, votre
coeur meme, qui parle tendrement, douleureusement, noblement sous
votre jeu. Je ne puis pas me debarrasser d'une certaine tristesse
quand je vois des artistes si nobles et hauts tels que vous et
Monsieur Irving. Si vous deux vous etes si fortes de soumettre (avec
un travail