the opinion that she couldn't be outclassed at the
Lyceum, and Mr. Hagge responded with vivacity that there were few places
where she wouldn't stretch the winner's neck. The feast was not
after all one of great bounty, Mr. Stanhope justly holding that the
opportunity, the little gathering, was the thing, and it was not long
before the moment of celebration arrived for which the gentlemen of
the Stock Exchange, to judge from their undrained glasses, seemed to be
reserving themselves. There certainly had been one tin of pate, and
it circulated at that end; on the other hand the ladies had all the
fondants. So that when Mr. Llewellyn Stanhope rose with the sentiment
of the evening he found satisfaction, if not repletion, in the regards
turned upon him.

Llewellyn got up with modest importance, and ran a hand through his
yellow hair, not dramatically, but with the effect of collecting
his ideas. He leaned a little forward, he was extremely, happily
conspicuous. The attention of the two lines of faces seemed to overcome
him, for an instant, with dizzy pleasure; Hilda's beside him was bent a
little, waiting.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said Mr. Stanhope, looking with precision up
and down the table to be still more inclusive, "we have met together
to-night in honour of a lady who has given this city more pleasure in
the exercise of her profession than can be said of any single performer
during the last twenty years. Cast your eye back over the theatrical
record of Calcutta for that space of time, and you yourselves will admit
that there has been nobody that could be said to have come within a mile
of her shadow, if I may use the language of metaphor." (Applause, led
by Mr. Fillimore.) "I would ask you to remember, at the same time, that
this pleasure has been of a superior class. I freely admit that this is
a great satisfaction to me personally. Far be it from me to put myself
forward on this auspicious occasion, but, ladies and gentlemen, if I
have one ambition more than another, it is to promote the noble cause
of the unfettered drama. To this I may say I have been vowed from the
cradle, by a sire who was well-known in the early days of the metropolis
of Sydney as a pioneer of the great movement which has made the dramatic
talent of Australia what it is. To-day a magnificent theatre rises on
the site forever consecrated to me by those paternal labours, but--but I
can never forget it. In Miss Hilda Howe I have found a great co