Cecil,
glancing over it, was surprised to find that it was not _The Boy
Highwayman of Hampstead_, but a treatise on Algebra. The call-boy
told him that he was endeavouring to educate himself, with a view to
going out to India. Cecil bought him quite a library of books, paid
for a series of classes for him, and eventually, thanks to Cecil, the
call-boy passed second in a competitive examination, and obtained a
well-paid appointment in a Calcutta Bank. Cecil, or to give him his
real name, Arthur Blount, was also an excellent musician, and his
setting of _The Better Land_ is to my mind a beautiful one. He was an
eccentric, faddy, kindly, gentle creature.
At the "Grill-room," actor-managers are constantly pouring out their
woes. One well-known actor-manager came in full of a desperate row he
had had with his leading lady because the printer in the bills of the
new production had forgotten the all-important "and" before her name.
She merely appeared at the end of the list of characters, whereas she
wanted "AND Miss Lilian Vavasour." "Such a ridiculous fuss to make
about an 'and,'" grumbled the actor-manager. "Yes," retorted
Comyns-Carr, "and unfortunately 'and and 'art do not always go
together on these occasions.
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