tches at my
scarlet face. While in the entrance I had to be wrapped up in a great
big shawl, through which the odour could not quite penetrate, so no one
suspected me when making kindly inquiries about my health; but when it
was thrown off, and in my thin white gown I went on the stage--oh!

In the charming little love scene, as Henri and I sat close, oh, very
close together, on the garden seat, and I had to look up at him with
wide-eyed admiration, I saw him turn his face aside, wrinkling up his
nose, and heard him whisper: "What an infernal smell! What is it?"

I shook my head in seeming ignorance and wondered what was ahead--if
this was the beginning. It was a harrowing experience; by the time the
second act was on, the whole company was aroused. They were like an
angry swarm of bees. Miss Dietz kept her handkerchief openly to her
pretty nose; Miss Morant, in stately dudgeon, demanded that Mr. Daly
should be sent for, that he might learn the condition of his theatre,
and the dangers his people were subjected to in breathing such poisoned
air; while right in the very middle of our best scene, Mr. Louis James,
the incorrigible, stopped to whisper, "Can't we move further over and
get out of this confounded stench?"

In that act I had to spend much of my time at the piano, with the result
that when the curtain fell, the people excitedly declared that awful
smell was worst right there, and I had the misery of seeing the prompter
carefully looking into the piano and applying his long, sharp nose to
its upright interior.

There had been a moment in that act when I thought James Lewis suspected
me. I had just taken my seat opposite him at the chess table, when he
gave a little jerk at his chair, exclaiming under his breath, "Blast
that smell--there it is again!"

[Illustration: _Mrs. Gilbert, Augustin Daly, James Lewis, Louis James_]

I remained silent, and there I was wrong; for Lewis, knowing me well,
knew my habit of extravagant speech, and instantly his blue pop eyes
were upon my miserable face, with suspicion sticking straight out of
them. With trembling hand I made my move at chess, saying, "Queen to
Queens rook four," and he added in aside, "Seems to me you're mighty
quiet about this scent; I hope you ain't going to tell me you can't
smell it?"

But the assurance that "I did--oh, I did, indeed! smell a most
outrageous odour," came so swiftly, so convincingly from my lips, that
his suspicions were lulled to res