ore she could speak, and Julia Marlowe
admitted freely that her knees were giving way beneath her. They really
had something of an ordeal before them, for it was decided that each
actress must speak twice going immediately from the hall to the overflow
meeting and repeating there the speech she had just made. But in the
mean time some one had to hold the impatient audience in the second
hall, and as it was a duty every one else promptly repudiated, a row of
suddenly imploring faces turned toward Miss Anthony and me. I admit that
we responded to the appeal with great reluctance. We were SO comfortable
where we were--and we were also deeply interested in the first intimate
glimpse we were having of these stars in the dramatic sky. We saw our
duty, however, and with deep sighs we rose and departed for the second
hall, where a glance at the waiting throng did not add to our pleasure
in the prospect before us.

When I walked upon the stage I found myself facing an actually hostile
audience. They had come to look at and listen to the actresses who had
been promised them, and they thought they were being deprived of that
privilege by an interloper. Never before had I gazed out on a mass of
such unresponsive faces or looked into so many angry eyes. They were
exchanging views on their wrongs, and the general buzz of conversation
continued when I appeared. For some moments I stood looking at them,
my hands behind my back. If I had tried to speak they would undoubtedly
have gone on talking; my silence attracted their attention and they
began to wonder what I intended to do. When they had stopped whispering
and moving about, I spoke to them with the frankness of an overburdened
heart.

"I think," I said, slowly and distinctly, "that you are the most
disagreeable audience I ever faced in my life."

They gasped and stared, almost open-mouthed in their surprise.

"Never," I went on, "have I seen a gathering of people turn such ugly
looks upon a speaker who has sacrificed her own enjoyment to come and
talk to them. Do you think I want to talk to you?" I demanded, warming
to my subject. "I certainly do not. Neither does Miss Anthony want to
talk to you, and the lady who spoke to you a few moments ago, and whom
you treated so rudely, did not wish to be here. We would all much prefer
to be in the other hall, listening to the speakers from our comfortable
seats on the stage. To entertain you we gave up our places and came here
simply b