A slightly revised script, with two different players, has produced strikingly different reviews.

In a conference call today on Lehman Brothers' second-quarter loss, its C.E.O., Richard Fuld, was finally center stage, taking responsibility for the firm's stumbles and pledging greater transparency.

"We really didn't react quickly enough" to an eroding market, Fuld said.

"We made a decision to build out our best-in-class mortgage origination and distribution platforms. We made active decisions to deploy our capital, some of which, in hindsight, were poor choices."

That acknowledgment and Fuld's confidence in the firm's businesses played much better than the conference call last week, when Lehman said it expected to report a $2.8 billion loss for the second quarter. Shares of Lehman plunged afterward.

Today, shares of Lehman are up 7 percent.

A week ago, Erin Callan, then the chief financial officer, sought to play down fears that there would be additional bombshells to come. But she also cautioned again and again that the results could change materially when the full results were released. As Megan Barnett said at the time, "That kind of disclosure is perfectly acceptable, but her emphasis on it almost had the effect of neutralizing her confidence."

Shares fell sharply for four consecutive says. On Thursday, Callan and chief operating officer Joseph Gregory were out of their jobs. On Friday, Lehman shares rose 14 percent.

Callan had been the public face of Lehman as it navigated a storm of rumors and questions about its balance sheet and even fears about whether it might become the next Bear Stearns.

Early on, she won praise for her ability to exude confidence and competence, but a steady drumbeat from skeptics, most prominently David Einhorn, whose hedge fund has had a short position on Lehman, grew louder and she became less effective.

So today, Fuld stepped out from behind the curtains to take the microphone. "This is my responsibility, and I wanted you to hear a few things from me directly," he said.

Fuld did praise his former executives who took the grenade for him, calling Callan "wonderfully talented" and speaking of his three decades with Gregory. His departure, Fuld said, "was one of the most difficult decisions that he and I had to make together."

The firm's new chief financial officer, Ian Lowitt, took investors and analysts through an usually detailed tour of the second-quarter numbers.

As it turned out, there were no surprises in Lehman Brothers' second quarter.

For the quarter, Lehman recorded a loss of $2.8 billion, or $5.14 per share, compared with $1.27 billion, or $2.21 per share, in the quarter a year ago. It was Lehman's first quarterly loss as a public company since it was spun off from American Express in 1994.

The firm has also reduced its exposure to mortgages and real estate. Gross leverage fell to 24.3 times equity, down from the 25 times equity it forecast last week, and down from 31.7 times equity in the first quarter. Lehman said on the call that it was done deleveraging for the moment and planned to start putting some of the $6 billion it has raised in new capital to work.

The recent capital raising by Lehman and other Wall Street firms, however, may be giving investors a sense of false confidence, contends Jesse Eisinger in the latest issue of Condé Nast Portfolio.

"Think the investors who are pouring money into financial institutions know something special? They don't," Eisinger says. "Since the banks and insurers don't really know the value of their own books, neither do outside investors."