The Tale Teller Presents Five Little Plays by Alfred Sutro Brightish Dramatist Author Free Audiobook Public Domain.
the man in the stalls by alfred sutro this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information and to volunteer please visit librivox.org

five little plays by alfred sutro the man in the stalls the persons of the play hector allen read by bruce peary walter cousins read by mb elizabeth allen and narration read by elizabeth clatt the sitting room of a little flat in shaftsbury avenue at back is a door leading to the dining room it is open and the dinner table is in full view of the audience to the extreme right is another door leading to the hall the place is pleasantly and pretty though quite inexpensively furnished to the left at angles with the distempered wall is a baby grand piano the fireplace in which a fire is burning merrily is on the same side full center to the right of the door leading to the dining room is a small side table on which there is a tray with decanter and glasses in front of this a card table open with two packs of cards on it and chairs on each side another table a round one is in the center of the room two right and to left of it are comfortable armchairs against the right wall is a long sofa above it hang a few good watercolors and engravings on the piano and the table there are flowers a general appearance of refinement and comfort pervades the room no luxury but evidence everywhere of good taste and the countless feminine touches that make a room home homelike and pleasant when the curtain rises hector allen a youngish man of forty with an attractive intellectual face is seen standing by the dining table in the inner room draining his liqueur glass with walter cousins to the right of him lighting a cigarette walter is a few years younger than his friend moderately good looking with fine curly brown hair and a splendid silky mustache his morning clothes are conspicuously well cut he is evidently something of a dandy hector wears a rather shabby dress suit his boots are awkward and his tie ready made betty a handsome woman of 30 wearing a very pretty tea gown is talking to the maid at the back of the dining room hector puts down his glass and comes into the sitting room followed by walter hector is puffing at a short stumpy little black cigar hector talking as he comes through continuing the conversation he walks to the fireplace and stands with his back to it i tell you if i'd known what it meant i'd never have taken the job sounded so fine to be reader of plays for the duke's theater advisor to the great mr honeyswell and then when the old man said i was to go to all the first nights why i just chortled it's the first nights that show you the grip of the thing that teach you most he said teach you as though there were anything to learn oh my stars i tell you it's a dog's life walter sitting to left of the round table i'd change places with you sonny you were they that's what they all say four new plays this week my lad one yesterday one today another tomorrow and the night after all day long i'm reading plays and i spend my night seeing them do you know i read about 2 000 a year divide two thousand by three hundred and sixty-five a dog's life that's what it is better than being a stockbroker's clock you believe me is it i wish you could have a turn at it my bonnie boy your hair'd go gray like mine and look here what are the plays today they're either so chock full of intellect that they send you to sleep or they reek a sentiment till you yearn for the smell of a cabbage well you've the change at any rate change bye jove give me a punch and judy show on the sands or performing dogs please i'm sick of them and look here the one i'm off to tonight it's adapted from the french well we know what that means husband wife and mistress or wife husband lover that's what a french play means and you make it english and pass the censer...