"Where did you get that coat from, Austin ?" asked the great actor, surveying his subordinate.

"Sir!" replied Austin boldly, "it is part of my country wardrobe." The manager paused, frowned, reflected.

Soon he was satisfied that the effect of Austin's dress would be injurious to his own, especially as Austin was of superior physical proportions.

"Austin," he said at length, "why, perhaps you have some other engagement--besides, the part is really beneath you.

Altogether, I will not trouble you to go on with me." And not to go on as an attendant upon Lothario was precisely what Austin desired.
O'Keeffe, in his "Memoirs," has related a curious instance of the prompt bestowal of an article of apparel upon an actor attached to the Crow Street Theatre, Dublin.