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“Can’t be helped–no one else,” growled Mr. Ellsler; “Just study your lines, right away, and do the best you can.”

“I had been brought up to obey,” says Miss Morris, “and I obeyed. The dreaded morning of rehearsal came. There came a call for the Queen. I came forward. Herr Bandmann glanced at me, half smiled, waved his arms, and said, ‘Not you, not the Player-Queen, but GERTRUDE.’

“I faintly answered, ‘I’m sorry, sir, but I have to play Gertrude!’

“‘Oh no, you won’t!’ he cried, ‘not with me!’ Then, turning to Mr. Ellsler, he lost his temper and only controlled it when he was told that there was no one else to take the part; if he would not play with me, the theater must be closed for the night. Then he calmed down and condescended to look the girl over who was to play such an inappropriate role.

“The night came–a big house, too, I remember,” says Miss Morris. “I wore long and loose garments to make me look more matronly, but, alas, the drapery Queen Gertrude wears was particularly becoming to me and brought me uncommonly near to prettiness. Mr. Ellsler groaned, but said nothing, while Mr. Bandmann sneered out an ‘ Ach Himmel!‘ and shrugged his shoulders, as if dismissing the matter as hopeless.”

But it was not. “As Bandmann’s great scene advanced to its climax, so well did the young Queen Mother play up to Hamlet, that the applause was rapturous. The curtain fell, and to her utter amaze she found herself lifted high in the air and crushed to Hamlet’s bosom, with a crackling sound of breaking Roman pearls and in a whirlwind of German exclamations, kissed on brow, cheeks and eyes. Then disjointed English came forth; ‘Oh, you are so great, you kleine apple-cheeked girl! You maker of the fraud–you so great, nobody. Ach, you are fire–you have pride–you are a Gertrude who have shame!’ More kisses, then suddenly realizing that the audience was still applauding, he dragged her before the curtain, he bowed, he waved his hands, he threw one arm around my shoulders. ‘He isn’t going to do it all over again–out here, is he?’ thought the victim of his enthusiasm, and began backing out of sight as quickly as possible.”

That amusing experience led to one of the most precious memories of Clara Morris’s career, when, a month after the departure of the impetuous German, who should be announced to play with the company but Mr. Edwin Booth. As Clara Morris read the cast of characters, she says, “I felt my eyes growing wider as I saw–

QUEEN GERTRUDE…………Miss Morris.

“I had succeeded before, oh yes, but this was a different matter. All girls have their gods–some have many of them. My gods were few, and on the highest pedestal of all, grave and gentle, stood the god of my professional idolatry–Edwin Booth. It was humiliating to be forced on any one as I should be forced upon Mr. Booth, since there was still none but my ‘apple-cheeked’ self to go on for the Queen, and though I dreaded complaint and disparaging remarks from him, I was honestly more unhappy over the annoyance this blemish on the cast would cause him. But it could not be helped, so I wiped my eyes, repeated my childish little old-time ‘Now I lay me,’ and went to sleep.

“The dreaded Monday came, and at last–the call, ‘Mr. Booth would like to see you for a few moments in his room.’

“He was dressed for Hamlet when I entered. He looked up, smiled, and, waving his hand, said in Bandmann’s very words: ‘No, not you–not the Player-Queen –but GERTRUDE.’

“My whole heart was in my voice as I gasped: ‘I’m so sorry, sir, but I have to do Queen Gertrude. You see,’ I rushed on, ‘our heavy woman has a broken leg and can’t act. But if you please,’ I added, ‘I had to do this part with Mr. Bandmann, too, and–and–I’ll only worry you with my looks, sir, not about the words or business.’