were to play there next week, and that Mary
Anderson was having a great success in "A
Winter's Tale," in London.

The door from the office opened, and
Johnnie Gardener came in, directing Blind
d'Arnault, -- he would never consent to be
led. He was a heavy, bulky mulatto, on short
legs, and he came tapping the floor in front of
him with his gold-headed cane. His yellow face
was lifted in the light, with a show of white
teeth, all grinning, and his shrunken, papery
eyelids lay motionless over his blind eyes.

"Good-evening, gentlemen. No ladies here?
Good-evening, gentlemen. We going to have
a little music? Some of you gentlemen going to
play for me this evening?" It was the soft,
amiable negro voice, like those I remembered
from early childhood, with the note of docile
subservience in it. He had the negro head,
too; almost no head at all; nothing behind the
ears but folds of neck under close-clipped wool.
He would have been repulsive if his face had
not been so kindly and happy. It was the hap-
piest face I had seen since I left Virginia.

He felt his way directly to the piano. The
moment he sat down, I noticed the nervous
infirmity of which Mrs. Harling had told me.

[[209]]

p208 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p209w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p210

v?