* * * * *
"YOUNG WISDOM."
_Victoria_ was very young and very, very wise. She knew all about the
slavery of the marriage-tie, the liberty of the female subject, and
high-sounding things of that sort, and kept books of advanced thinking
secretly under her mattress--where her little brother found them and
thought them dull, and her mother found them and thought them rather
funny. _Victoria's_ theory was that all marriages ought to be preceded
by a trial trip, but it was her sister _Gail_ who had the pluck to put
this theory into practice. She insisted on her young man, _Peter_,
eloping with her on the night before their wedding. _Peter_, a simple
gentleman with a mouth permanently open, was reluctantly persuaded.
Whereupon _Christopher_, the best man, engaged to _Victoria_, insisted
upon _Victoria_ also living up to her theory and eloping without
clerical assistance--which she did almost as unwillingly as _Peter_. The
two couples meet at midnight in an old moorland cottage rented by an
artist called _Max_ (no, not the one you think), whereupon two important
things happen:--
(1) _Gail_ decides in about twenty minutes that she loves
_Max_, not _Peter_. (2) _Victoria_ decides that she hates trial
trips. So they all five go back together, and, after a lot of
"Tut-tut-what-the-blank-upon-my-souls" from the military stage-father,
they sort themselves out again and get married properly--_Peter_ being
left over with a cold in the head.
The author, Miss RACHEL CROTHERS, has not strained herself severely in
writing _Young Wisdom_, and the result is a pleasantly innocent little
play, which, thanks to the Misses MARGERY MAUDE and MADGE TITHERADGE as
the two sisters, and Mr. JOHN DEVERELL as _Peter_, gave us all a good
deal of pleasure. Miss MAUDE had a part with a little comedy in it for
once, and she played it delightfully.