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Show -243- and she had played a servant's role in the same production. No one meeting them for the f i r s t time would have taken them for a c t o r s . lie xas in no xay handsome. She might have been pretty a t one time, but noxr, xrith her rounded body and round face, she xas what the Professor in his younger days xrould have called "cute." Both of them in this domestic setting appeared shy. The Professor had something he xanted to say to the actor before the second couple appeared. Six years e a r l i e r , xrith an acting company that preceded the present one, the man had performed the role of King Lear in a manner that the Professor thought the most moving enactment of the part he had ever witnessed. For the f i r s t time, the character of the king came a l i v e for him, not as ai masterful performance of an h i s t o r i c al dramatic character, but as a genuinely suffering human being. He told this to the actor noxr, somewhat hesitantly, because i t had been so long since he had seen'the play and because ho xas not quite sure how the man xrould react to praise of a role performed so long ago. Why not praise of something done more recently? Might not praise of this part imply some c r i t i c i sm of roles he xas playing noxr? The Professor need not have worried. The actor seemed uncommonly pleased to have this part singled out. It had come early in his career, and he had been afraid at tho time that i t might seem presumptuous of him to undertake i t . What he had striven for, he said, xas exactly the effect the Professor had |
