This rule originates in a benevolent wish to permit the actors to slide
gradually into a consciousness that somebody is looking at them; thus
saving them from the possibility of stage-fright. Simple folks, who do
not understand the meaning of the custom, erroneously regard it as an
evidence of vulgarity and discourtesy.
The first act is not exciting. Mr. G.H. CLARKE, in irreproachable
clothes, (the clothes of this actor's professional life become him, if
any thing, better than his acting,) offers his hand to FROU-FROU, a
small girl with a reckless display of back-hair, and is accepted, to the
evident disgust of her sensible sister, LOUISE.
_Sympathetic Young Lady who adores that dear Mr. Clarke_.--"How sweetly
pretty! Do the people on the stage talk just like the _real_ French
aristocracy?"
_Travelled friend, knowing that persons in the neighborhood are
listening for his reply_--"Well, yes. To a certain extent, that is."
(_It suddenly occurring to him that nobody can know any thing about the
Legitimists, he says confidently_.) "They haven't the air, you know, of
the genuine old Legitimist _noblesse_.
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