_Mrs. Tid._ (_detaining_ Miss SEATON). I hope you are satisfied with
yourself, Miss SEATON? You _ought_ to be, I'm sure--after encouraging my
own child to disobey me, and behaving as you did with that most ill-bred
and impertinent _impostor_!
_Miss S._ (_indignantly_). He is nothing of the sort! Mrs. TIDMARSH,
you--you don't understand! _Please_ let me tell you about him!
_Mrs. Tid._ I have no desire whatever to hear. I am only sorry I ever
permitted you to dine at all. It will be a lesson to me another time. And
you will be good enough to retire to your own room at once, and remain
there till I send for you! [_She passes on._
_Miss Seaton_ (_following_). But I _must_ tell you first what a mistake you
are making. _Indeed_ he is not----!
_Mrs. Tid._ I don't care _what_ he is. Another word, Miss SEATON,--and we
part! [_She sweeps into the Drawing-room._
_Miss Seaton_ (_outside_). I have done all _I_ can! If I could only hope
the worst was over! But it doesn't matter much _now_. I know I shall never
see DOUGLAS again!
[_She goes sorrowfully up to her room._
(_End of Scene VII._)
* * * * *
"THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA" AT OXFORD.
The Oxford University Dramatic Society, unlike the Cambridge A. D. C., is
compelled by the Authorities to walk only amidst the high peaks and
sometimes monotonous solitudes of the legitimate drama. _The Two Gentlemen
of Verona_, which was chosen for this term's performance, is, if the truth
must be told, an uninteresting stage-play. The story is of the slightest;
there is scarcely a genuinely dramatic incident from beginning to end. The
audience wearies of a succession of pretty pictures and sentimental
soliloquies or dialogues, mouths begin to gape, and the attention wanders.
Is this sacrilege? If it be, I must be content to be sacrilegious. But
there is scope for careful and graceful acting, and of this the O. U. D. S.
took full advantage.
[Illustration: Teaching him his A. D. C.]
Mr. WHITAKER'S _Valentine_ was a very pleasing performance. He spoke his
lines admirably, grouped himself (if the Hibernianism be permissible)
excellently, and showed himself in every sense a well-graced actor. Mr.
PONSONBY'S _Launce_, too, was capital, carefully thought out and
consistently rendered. One or two of the actors in tights seemed unduly
conscious of their hands and knees, but, on the whole, the acting was of
good average excellence. The Ladies here are real Ladies, not stuffed
imitations, as at Cambridge. Mrs. SIM, Mrs. MORRIS, and Miss FARMER, were
all good. But the one really brilliant performance was that of _Crab_, the
dog, by a wonderful Variety performer from the Theatre Royal, Dogs' Home,
Battersea. If this gorgeously ugly, splendidly intelligent, and
affectionately versatile animal is sent back at the conclusion of the run
of the piece to be asphyxiated at Battersea, I shall never believe in the
gratitude or humanity of the O. U. D. S.