n Mason, and Mr. Loudham called; the
latter said he had good news about that fatal theater of ours, for
that Mr. Harris seemed to be inclined to come into some
accommodation, and so perhaps this cancer of a Chancery suit may
stop eating our lives away. Oh dear! I am afraid this is too good
news to be true. I went to my father's room and sat by him for a
long time, and talked about the horse I had bought for him; and
there he lies in his bed, and God knows when he will even be able
to walk again.

_Monday, 30th._--I went to rehearsal. It seems that the managers
and proprietors (of course not my poor father) had summoned a
meeting of all the actors to try and induce them to accept for the
present a reduced rate of salary till the theater can be in some
measure relieved of its most pressing difficulties. I knew nothing
of this, and, finding them all very solemnly assembled in the
greenroom, asked them cheerfully why they were all there, which
must have struck them strangely enough. I dare say they do not know
how little I know, or wish to know, about this disastrous concern.
On my return home, I heard that Dr. Watson had seen my father, and
requested that Dr. Wilson might be sent for. They fear inflammation
of the lungs; he has gone to the very limit of his tether, for had
he continued fagging a night or two longer the effects might have
been fatal. Poor, poor father!...

Lady Francis and Mrs. Sullivan called in the afternoon; I was
feeling miserable, and exhausted with my rehearsal. In the evening
I helped my mother to move all the furniture, which I think is
nothing in the world but a restless indication of her anxiety about
my father; it is the fourth time since she same back from the
country.

_Tuesday, December 1st._-- ... It seems that in the arrangement,
whatever it may be, which has taken place between the actors and
the management, Mr. Harley and Mr. Egerton are the only ones who
have declined the proposed accommodation. Young has behaved like an
angel, offering to play for nothing till Christmas; how kind and
liberal he is! Mr. Abbott, Mr. Duraset, Mr. Ward, and all the
others, have been as considerate and generous as possible. But the
thing is doomed, and will go to the ground, in spite of every
effort that can be made to stave