st act
was called. It was slow and tedious work. Over and over again the scenes
were tried. Some of the actors fumbled their lines as if they had never
read English before. Now and then the manager appealed to the authors
for the reading of a line, or an intonation, and Bambi always answered.
At the end of one scene the man who was to play the young musician
came to them.

"I've been thinking over my part, Mrs. Jocelyn, and I think that if you
could write in a scene right here, in act first, to let me explain to
the old fiddler my reason for being in this situation----"

"Oh, no, you mustn't explain. The whole point of the first act is that
you explain nothing."

"Yes, but it would play better," he began, in the patronizing tone
always used to newcomers in the theatre.

"I can't help that. I cannot spoil the truth of a whole character, even
if it does play better," said Bambi, smiling sweetly.

The actor took it up with the stage manager after rehearsal, and was
referred to the authors.

"These new playwrights always have to learn at our expense," he said,
importantly.

"Can't be helped. We have to use playwrights, however irritating they
are," remarked the stage manager.

Day after day they assembled at the same hour and slowly built up the
structure of the play. Many nights Jarvis and Bambi worked on new
scenes, or the rearrangement of the old ones. The first act was twisted
about many times before it "played" to the stage manager's satisfaction.
New lines had to be introduced, new business worked out every day. It
was hard work for everybody except Bambi, and she declared it was fun.
No matter how trying the rehearsals, nor how hard she had to work, she
enjoyed every minute of it. They soon discovered that Jarvis had no
talent for rehearsing. In fact, the mechanics of the thing bored him.
When a new scene was demanded quickly, his mind refused to work. It was
Bambi's quick wits that saved the day. After the first few days she was
the only one to be consulted and appealed to by everybody.

"I can't see that you need me at all in this business. I'm no good at
it."

"Yes, you are, too. You saw where that new scene in the third act
belonged at once."

"Yes, after you wrote the scene."

"But this is why we need each other. I didn't see where the scene
belonged at all. If we both could do the same thing, we wouldn't need to
collaborate. Thank heaven, we don't have the author underfoot
interfering all the t