to the real, shrug his shoulders, and pocket his profits. Yet, as if
making an appeal to the public to judge between the auctorial abstract
and the representational concrete, Mr. PINERO not only publishes his
playbook, but sells it in the theatre. Visitors to TERRY's, who buy
the book, will judge the play by its stage interpretation that has had
the advantage of the author's personal supervision and direction. The
representation, therefore, is either more or less in accordance with
his teaching, or flatly contradicts it.

[Illustration: One of the Leaders in _The Times_.]

The publication of the book of a comedy in a theatre may be thankfully
received as a present help to the audience, and an aid to memory
afterwards, or it may be considered as a protest on the part of the
author who says, "Here's what I have written. See how they act it:
whether it be farce or comedy, judge for yourselves. You pay your
money, and you take your choice." Suffice it, then, to record that, on
the night of this deponent's visit, the piece played from eight till
past eleven, and that the audience from first to last was generally
amused, but, I should be inclined to say, particularly disappointed
at the collapse of Mr. TERRY's part in the last Act (the principal
portion of which he passes curled up on a sofa, with the top of
his forehead powdered white! Why?), and mystified by the sudden and
apparently unnecessary revelation, made by _Miss Cazalet_, to the
effect that _Lucy Tuck_ (a mentally and physically short-sighted girl)
is her illegitimate daughter; and these two last-named personages,
though essential to the plot, fail unfortunately in rousing any
sentiment of pity or of sympathy.

Mr. ELLIOT is excellent as the _Hon. Montague Trimble_; nothing