CHAPTER I.

THE THEATRE WAS FULL,—CROWDED from floor to ceiling; the lights were turned low to give the stage full prominence,—and a large audience packed close in pit and gallery as well as in balcony and stalls, listened with or without interest, whichever way best suited their different temperaments and manner of breeding, to the well-worn famous soliloquy in “Hamlet"—"To be or not to be.” It was the first night of a new rendering of Shakespeare’s ever puzzling play,—the chief actor was a great actor,