a charming picture.  He was invited to meet her at dinner at a London house, and was her cavalier on the occasion.  The author of “The Princess” did not in truth succeed in supplanting in her regard the bard of her native land, Longfellow; but he so won on Mary’s heart that she afterward presented him with the gift—­somewhat unpoetic, it must be admitted—­of a bottle of priceless Kentucky whisky, of a fabulous age!

If Mary Anderson was a favorite with the public before the curtain, she was no less popular with her fellow artists on the stage.  Jealousy and ill-will not seldom reign among the surroundings of a star.  It is a trial to human nature to be but a lesser light revolving round some brilliant luminary—­but the setting to adorn the jewel.  But Mary Anderson won the hearts of every one on the boards, from actors to scene-shifters.  And at Christmas, in which she is a great believer, every one, high or low, connected with the Lyceum, was presented with some kind and thoughtful mark of her remembrance.  And when the season closed, she was presented in turn, on the stage, with a beautiful diamond suit, the gift of the fellow artists who had shared for so long her triumphs and her toils.

Mary Anderson’s success in London was fully indorsed by the verdict of the great provincial towns.  Everywhere she was received with enthusiasm, and hundreds were nightly turned from the doors of the theaters where she appeared.  In Edinburgh she played to a house of L450, a larger sum than was ever taken at the doors of the Lyceum.  The receipts of the week in Manchester were larger than those of any preceding week in the theatrical history of the great Northern town.  Taken as a whole, her success has been without a parallel on the English stage.  If she has not altogether escaped hostile criticism in the press, she has won the sympathies of the public in a way which no artist of other than English birth has succeeded in doing before her.  They have come and gone, dazzled us for a time, but have left behind them no endearing remembrance.  Mary Anderson has found her way to our hearts.  It seems almost impossible that she can ever leave us to resume again the old life of a wandering star across the great American continent.  It may be rash to venture a prophecy as to what the future may bring forth; but thus much we may say with truth, that, whenever Mary Anderson departs finally from our shores, the name of England will remain graven on her heart.

CHAPTER VII.

IMPRESSIONS OF ENGLAND.

Almost every traveler from either side of the Atlantic, with the faintest pretensions to distinction, bursts forth on his return to his native shores in a volume of “Impressions.”  Archaeologists and philosophers, novelists and divines, apostles of sweetness and light, and star actors, are accustomed thus to favor the public with volumes which the public could very often be well content to spare.  It is but