The First Act, which showed the child's life at home, had fallen
altogether flat; but the Third, in which she wakes in her pretty
bedroom, restored from the jaws of death to her repentant parents,
put us on better terms with ourselves, for we were not really hard to
please. The sweetness of it was perhaps a little cloying, but it was
all quite nice and sympathetic. Still, I am afraid I agreed more than
I was meant to with the speech of pretty little Miss STEPHANIE BELL,
when she told us before the curtain that they would cable to the
author in America to say how glad we were that it was all over.
Mr. ERNEST HENDRIE, who was translated from an organ-grinder to a
maker of faces, played very soundly, but seemed to me a little too
deliberate and conscious in his speech. I found a more moving appeal
in the slight pathetic sketch of an old faithful butler by Mr. GEORGE
MALLETT. Mr. FEWLASS LLEWELLYN might easily, with a little assistance
from the author, have extracted a lot more fun from his Plumber. Mr.
MALCOLM CHERRY had a simple and popular part as the good Doctor.
Miss HELEN HAYE'S cleverness was wasted on the character of a sinuous
governess. Miss EVELYN WEEDEN did all that was asked of the mother in
both worlds--the world of fancy and the world of fact. But, to speak
truth, there was little attraction in the performance apart from the
personality of Miss STEPHANIE BELL in the title _role_.
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