midnight
said Maybelle La Rue , who was Mabel Cluett in private life . Martie gasped at the mere thought . She determined to diet . A few months before , she had supposed that social intercourse was a large factor in the actor 's life , that midnight suppers were shared by the cast , and that intimacy of an unconventional if harmless nature reigned among them . Now , with some surprise , she learned that this was not the case . The actors , leaving the play at different moments , quietly got into their street clothes and disappeared ; so that Mabel and Wallace , usually holding the stage for the last few moments by reason of their respective parts of maid and lover , often left a theatre empty of performers except for themselves . Jesse would frequently reach home enough earlier to be sound asleep when his wife rushed in to seize her hungry and fretting baby .