His mother was on the stage.' 'Was she ?' rejoined Nicholas.
'She ate apple-pie at a circus for upwards of fourteen years,' said the manager; 'fired pistols, and went to bed in a nightcap; and, in short, took the low comedy entirely.

His father was a dancer.' 'Was he at all distinguished ?' 'Not very,' said the manager.

'He was rather a low sort of pony.

The fact is, he had been originally jobbed out by the day, and he never quite got over his old habits.

He was clever in melodrama too, but too broad--too broad.