to worry overmuch (_absit omen_!) about returned
prisoners of war. He reveals himself to nobody but his villain brother
_William_ (Mr. AYRTON). That fatuous revenue officer, _Lomax_ (Mr.
MALLESON), has written a fulsomely flattering life of him at which his
gorge rises. Everybody, apart from opening a hospital in his memory (in
a bed of which he eventually finds himself), seems to be going about his
or her business much as usual (yet what else could they do?). He
extracts a character of himself from his faithful old servant and finds
it not so flattering as he would have liked. Seems, in fact, determined
to have his grievance. Well, then, he will buy a dog. And he will take
the road with his pal the comic sailor and shake the dust of fickle Troy
from off his feet.

But I protest that this is all very unfair to the Trojans. As soon as he
gave them their chance they took it decently enough, so much so that all
ended happily in what must have been a most uncomfortable dance on the
sharp fragments of the _Toogood_ bust which the disgruntled original had
smashed with his crutch.

Of course poor _William_ very naturally resented this extraordinarily
inconsiderate return from the dead of a long and well-lost brother,
several thousand of whose pounds he had misappropriated. As for _Lomax_,
could he by any stretch of the imagination within the frame of this
picture have tried to bribe the Mayor to go away just to save his
infernal biography from being wasted? You simply can't have a convincing
colloquy on these lines between the tragic figure of the disillusioned
and embittered hero and this farcical jackanapes.

And I think it was just this sort of lack of conviction that flattened
the actors. Mr. HENRY AINLEY had his moments, but he's not a man of
moments. He's about our best _whole-hogger_. Mr. LEON QUARTERMAINE'S
easy skill was, as it always is, a very pleasant thing to watch. Mr. DE
LANGE gave an animated little sketch of a droll French spy. Mr. MILES
MALLESON shouldn't let his sense of character and his undoubted talent
for business lead him into that capital sin of taking more than his
share of the stage. Mr. HENDRIE as the sailor, _Ben Chope_, gave us
another of those amusing grotesques of his; and Miss CLAIRE GREET put in
a clever paragraph as _Mrs. Chope_. Mr. FREDERICK GROVES was an
excellent gruff servant; Miss PEGGY RUSH a pretty bride; Mr. GERALD
MCCARTHY a plausible lover; Miss BRUCE-POTTER a becomingly subdued