Flanders was on the newspaper, but
his aspirations were quite as lofty as any one's: he was writing a
play. He had already written two novels, both of which remained
unpublished.
At the outset, his play was intended for Miss Barrymore, but after the
second week of his acquaintance with the attractive Miss Colgate his
ambitions proved fickle: he discarded Miss Barrymore and substituted
Miss Colgate for the star part in the piece. Fortunately he had
written but six or eight pages of the first act, so the transfer was
not a deleterious undertaking. He could see no one else in the part;
he could think of no one else as he dreamed of the play's success.
Moreover, Miss Colgate was as pleased as Punch over this flattering
tribute to her magnetism--for the part, as described, was one that
would not "get over" unless created by an actress of pronounced
magnetic appeal--and lost no time in falling deeply in love with the
manly playwright. They were serious-minded, ambitious young people. It
is of small consequence that he was an untried, unskilled dramatist,
and of equally small moment that she was little more than an amateur.
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