Then "Master" (as the _Sporting Times_
would irreverently speak of him) soliloquises over Master's father's
coffin. Arrival of _Sir William Ashton_. Row and flashing of steel
in torchlight. Appearance of one lovely beyond compare--ELLEN TERRY,
otherwise _Lucy Ashton_; graceful as a Swan. Swan and Edgar. Curtain.
[Illustration: MR. IRVING MAKING HIS GREAT HIT. THE BULL'S-EYE!
After such a hit,--"there is no cause for fear now!"]
ACT II.--Library and Armoury. Convenient swords and loaded
blunderbusses. _Lord Keeper Ashton_ appears. Quite right that there
should be the Keeper present, in view of _Lucy_ subsequently going
mad. Young _Henry Ashton_, the youth GORDON CRAIG, a lad of promise,
and performance, has the entire stage to himself for full two minutes,
to show what he can do with a speech descriptive of some pictures.
Master alone with Keeper, suggests duel. Why arms in Library, unless
duel? Fight about to commence according to Queensberry rules, when
Master sees portrait. Whose? _Lucy's_? "No," says Master; "not to
be taken in. I know LUCY'S picture; it was done by WARD." The Keeper
explains that this is a portrait, not of the author of _The History of
Two Parliaments_, and _Fleecing Gideon_, but of his daughter _Lucy_,
which has never yet been seen in any exhibition or loan collection.
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