"
"Very good. The first step toward accomplishing that object is to beat
our retreat--excuse a professional metaphor from a military man--to beat
our retreat from York to-morrow. I see my way plainly so far; but I am
all abroad, as we used to say in the militia, about my marching orders
afterward. The next direction we take ought to be chosen with an eye
to advancing your dramatic views. I am all ready, when I know what your
views are. How came you to think of the theater at all? I see the sacred
fire burning in you; tell me, who lit it?"
Magdalen could only answer him in one way. She could only look back at
the days that were gone forever, and tell him the story of her first
step toward the stage at Evergreen Lodge. Captain Wragge listened
with his usual politeness; but he evidently derived no satisfactory
impression from what he heard. Audiences of friends were audiences whom
he privately declined to trust; and the opinion of the stage-manager was
the opinion of a man who spoke with his fee in his pocket and his eye on
a future engagement.
"Interesting, deeply interesting," he said, when Magdalen had done.
"But not conclusive to a practical man.
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