deed. He found an additional reward in the expression of Robin's countenance, as he held back the curtain for them to make their exeunt, and said, in a low, feeling tone,

"I thank you, sir! Very few stars would have done what you have just done!"

CHAPTER V.

Tina's Musical Gift. - Mr. Higgins' Ideas of a Theatrical Establishment. The Tempest. Spurious Edition. -Tina "cast" as Ariel. - Discussion between the Manager and Stage-Manager. Exultation of Susan and Robin on reading the Cast. Excitement in the Theatre. Miss Mellen's Sarcasm. — Night of Performance. -The Prompter's Nook. Ariel's Appearance. -Tina's Delineation. - Fifth Act. Ariel Flying.—Entangled Wires. - A Mother's Terror. General Confusion. — Frightful Catastrophe. — Robin's Presence of Mind.- The Rescue. - Night Watchers in the GreenRoom. Bearing Tina Home. Incidents by the Way.— The Child's Answer to her Father.

OPERATIC melodies were as familiar to Tina's infant ears as the cradle lullaby to those of ordinary children. Susan had always taken part in choruses. She possessed a sweet though not powerful voice, and a very accurate ear. Before her child's lisping tongue could prattle fluently, the mother commenced instructing her in one of the most important branches of her profession.

Tina was in her seventh year before her musical faculties were discovered in the theatre. She was then required to sing in a burlesque. The music apportioned to her was a parody upon several popular airs. The gush of birdlike melody that broke from her lips at rehearsal, the clear, warbled notes, took all ears captive, and hushed every other sound. Those within hearing could not choose but mutely

her eyes

listen. Then her face sang; "shot out vocal light;" her whole frame was penetrated and thrilled through and through with the spirit of melody. The leader of the orchestra was in ecstasies. Need the effect upon the audience, at night, be related? From that time the new songster carolled nightly to enchanted ears.

Mr. Higgins announced to his stage-manager that Shakspeare's Tempest would be the next attraction presented to the public. Let it not be imagined that this refined selection was an evidence of Mr. Higgins' cultivation and taste. He was merely a judicious caterer for the public amusement; he had the skill of feeling the pulse of his audiences, and discovering their requirements. Of high art, of the true purposes and ennobling objects of the stage, he knew nothing. The theatre was simply his means of gaining a livelihood, his workshop, where dramas to suit his customers were provided and manufactured, and where artisans were paid as charily as possible for their labor. As for the elevated or debasing tone, the morality or immorality, of the plays presented, these were not subjects upon which he wasted a thought.

It so chanced that the class of audience who supported his theatre were attracted by unobjectionable plays; such, therefore, were placed before them, dished up by Mr. Higgins as a hotel purveyor serves his viands, consulting merely the appetite, not the health, of his guests. Had the patrons of his establishment preferred plays of an opposite character, Mr. Higgins, as far as the licenser permitted, would

have surfeited them with the most highly-seasoned immorality that could be concocted.

The Tempest was to be produced from the original text. The reader may not be aware of the existence of a stage version, in which hapless Will Shakspeare is unmercifully mutilated. The noble Prospero has a spurious scion grafted on his stock; and the peerless Miranda is furnished with a sister, an excrescence as unresembling herself as Goneril was unlike Cordelia.

The character of the "dainty Ariel," the "delicate sprite," belongs, according to stage conventionalities, to the singer of the theatre. That its delineation should be intrusted to a child was a novel idea; yet such was Mr. Higgins' proposal to his stage-manager. Tina's great popularity, and the spell of her flute-like music, induced Mr. Higgins to make this bold experimenta decided innovation on theatrical usages.

Mr. Tuttle, accustomed as he was to bow and say "Ay" to every suggestion of his superior, now ventured to demur. He urged that the singer of the theatre, Miss Mellen, would probably "throw up" her engagement. The part belonged to her by right, —that could be proved by all precedents; then the music was difficult. Could Miss Truehart master it in time? Could she execute it at all?

Mr. Tuttle vehemently heaped his objections one upon the other; and Mr. Higgins coolly swept them away, as though they had been a child's edifice of cards. He was one of those persons whom opposition always renders inflexible.

"Cast the piece, sir, with Miss Truehart as Ariel.

I will arrange matters with Miss Mellen; if she choose to throw up her engagement, so much the better. Miss Truehart will more than fill her place, one of these days. That child is invaluable to the establishment, and I can foresee what she is destined to become."

And Tina was cast for Ariel.

The cast of plays is hung in a glass frame, in a conspicuous part of the green-room. It is the duty of every actor to inspect this cast daily. Concerning its preparation the members of the company are not consulted by the stage-manager. In all well-regulated theatres, however, every actor is entitled to a certain line of business, and cannot be called upon to undertake any character which does not belong to the class for which he is engaged.

Great was Susan's wonder and delight, when, glancing over the cast of the Tempest, she read Tina's name as Ariel! A rehearsal was called, to take place the next day. Away she ran to the stage, in hope that the business of the morning had not yet commenced, and she could communicate the good. news to her husband; but the first act had that moment begun. It is an infringement of rules for any person not engaged in rehearsing to cross the stage, or address the prompter, or in any way interfere with his duty. Susan and Robin had been accustomed to adhere strictly to all regulations, not merely from a dread of seeing their names inscribed in the awful forfeit-book, which, in its glaring red cover, lay threateningly on the stage-manager's table, but because obedience was a duty. A strict adherence to