s just what I wanted, so I followed the person who had so kindly
interested himself in my scribble. He proved to be Mr. Mowbray, the
manager of the theatre. The picture behind the scenes that night was a
perfect Elysium to me. I think Mowbray must have noticed the impression
it made upon me, for he asked if I would like to go on the stage. I
did--as a sort of super."

[Illustration: SKETCH FROM HOTEL WINDOW, CLEVELAND, U.S.A., BY MR.
KENDAL.]

Mr. Kendal's first important engagement lasted four or five years at the
Theatre Royal, Glasgow. Here he met and played with such people as Helen
Faucit (Lady Martin), G. V. Brooke, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean, Dion
Boucicault, Fechter, Miss Bateman (Mrs. Crowe), and the elder Sothern.
When Sothern left, the accomplished young actor played _Dundreary_, and
found himself straying in the footsteps of the famous originator of the
part, even to the hop. One would have thought that people would have
praised the actor for taking such a worthy example--but it displeased
Tom Taylor, and he wrote very wrathfully. Then Mr. Kendal went to the
Haymarket, met Miss Robertson, and from their wedding day their lives
may be said to have been the same in thought, word, and deed.

As an organizer and man of business his tact and judgment were tested
and proved during his joint management of the St. James's with Mr. Hare
in 1881. For some time previous to this Mr. Kendal had been on the
look-out for a theatre, and his mind wandered towards the St. James's,
but it required a large sum of money spending on it before it could be
opened.

"One night I was talking to Lord Newry at my club," said Mr. Kendal,
"and happened to say that if L2,000 or so were spent on the St. James's
I might feel inclined to take it.

"'Suppose I spend that amount of money on the place, will you take it?'
Lord Newry asked.

"My only reply was that I would think about it. In the meantime I went
to the Court, from there to the Prince of Wales's to play in
'Diplomacy'--it ran a year--'Peril' and 'London Assurance.' Then I
returned to the Court again, and during this time Lord Newry had
practically gutted the old and unlucky St. James's, turned it inside
out--John Hare, my wife and self entered, and we remained there nearly
ten years."

Mr. and Mrs. Kendal share the same opinion of America--it is the land of
to-day, the land of the future. As to its theatres in comparison with
ours, Mrs. Kendal--who had now joined us--was mo