The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1868-07-19

WaAIiHS IOf some one III moment wv
men, bearing an armchair, were seen
approach, observing which, the gentlema
turned to the carriage door, saying auiibl
to some one within: :" All right, Alice, the
are here, and only a few persons about, s
we are i'll good time, and you will not hav
many eyes to encounter" The curiosity O
our friends was somewhat excited by tlli
little occurrence, only however to be greatl,
increased when they saw the gentleman
take tenderly in his arms the slight figure
OF an apparently young girl, and place he
in the armchair, behind Which stood re
spectfully the two men. AS she was seated
she raised her eyes and cast q hurried looi
around; both the young men uttered an in
voluntary exclamation of surprise, for from
those eyes beamed forth a beauty rarely
seen, and Aclille felt that a face more beau.
tiful in its wondrOus regularity of feature
and expression, he had never met even in
his long wanderings, from the cold, stately
English beauty to the warmer and softer
loveliness of the daughters of Italy and
Spain. -Keenly impressionable to that type
of beauty wherein the soul speaks through
the eyes, he felt as he gazed that for the first
time he beheld the ideal for which he had
SO long and vainly sought. Grasping Egg
his eyes fixed on the chair, which was borne
to one of the private boxes. Grisi was for
gotten-he only thought of finding posi-
ton from whence he could gaze unnoticed
upon this new-found revelation, and thus
determine how far first impressions could
be relied upon for future judgment.
They had not to wait long in the parquette
before the party in question made its ap-
pearance within range of their unlorgnetted
vision. The lady was again assisted from
the chair in which she had been carried, to
a large, comfortably ly-cushioned fauteuil,
some such purpose. The palor of her face,
and the anxiety of her friends in arranging
her seat, spoke the invalid, and proved that
they feared her strength being overtasked.
In a few moments she raised her head from
the back of the chair, where she had res ted
it, smiled upon her attendants, and then, as
she was relieved of her wrappings, cast her
large, black, luminous eyes around the house
with evident curiosity and interest. A mass
of white gossamer foated about and around
her head like q cloud, here and there re-
vealing a braid of black, glossy hair. A
white opera cloak enveloped her form, just
sufficiently barred Mt the throat to show it's
swanike proportions, graced by few
strands of pearls, to which was attached a
cross of the same. Her manner, her atti-
tude, evidenced her nervous sensibility,
and the eye Ofl7tfe young doctor saw with
pain yet with interest the many sudden
quick starts that every rush Of$the coming
crowd into the fast filling house occasioned
her. He had seen enough in the constant
play of her expressive features to satisfy
him Of the truth of Lavaters theory, and
the beauty and purity of the inner life
seemed revealed to him as if by magic.
AS he thus gazed, weaving his golden
dream -woof, the overture began, but he did
not hear 1.-THE curtain rose, and the grand
Druid chorus filled every ear and soul save
one i'll that house. Finer and newer study
for him was that nature, which, keenly
alive to the highest sense of the beautiful,
hears and sees for the first time it's true de-
IVnc f1,nfn ot,e
to the great harmony; her eyes grow lus-
trous, her cheek flushes, her hands twitch
nervously, and her whole being is alive
with its new-found utterance. A shout of
welcome, and behold-Grisi. She might
almost imagine herself amid the art-enthu-
siasm of her own bright land, rather than
gazing into the faces of strange people,
reputed, too, as only II money-loving race.
Achillc, for the first sine in his life, felt
as if he possessed a duplicate of the senses !;
his ears drank in every note of Casta Diva,
SO divinely rendered he saw every pose of
the priestess' plant form, and yet he never
lost a change in that other countenance, so
varied by the new -dawning light with
which this heavenly power, now for the first
time flooded her soul.-Grisi- was an old
story,-but that fragile woman, so young,
so beautiful, the victim of n hard fate, was
IL new leaf, never before turned for his read
ing. How eagerly, how anNiously every
nerve strung to its utmost tension, did she
follow the whole scene now her face ex-
pressed admiration for the noble, gifted
priestcss, now sympathy for the forsaken,
sorrowing woman while horror depicts it
self i'll every lincamcnt, as she beholds Nor
ana bend with her dagger over the sleeping
babes, followed by triumph when she sees
the avengcr yield to the true and stronger
instinct of the mothers undying love.
When, in the last scene, Grisi concentrates
all the trusting, forgiving woman, the low
ing wife and mother led to sacrifice; all
hearts forget, through the power of her
matchess delineation, that the golden sickle
no longer sewers the mistletoe for propitia-
ton, and that the sacred fire, with its at
tendant virgins, has, like those misguided
hearts, consumed itself to ashes, leaving