The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1880-01-23

ioPi"No 'he siory, tne excitement, the in
effsble joy art alone bestows on its favorite
children ? do not know who the Barberini
married. | have once been told her bus-
band was an American banker. If so she
is now probably very rich and living amid
the most exquisite luxury and yeti am
sure she feels dull and miserable and bitter
ly regrets the time when she possessed MOTH
ing in the world but her voice, and that voice
alone suficed to bring the whole world to
her feet
The lady answered not a word. A dark
frown had settled on her brow while the old
man spoke. When he had ended, she
spang from her chair and walked quickly
out of the room slamming the door. behind
her.
The old man looked in speechess wonder
from Annette to Jean.
What is the matter p he at length utter.
ed. "Who is this lady p
We'll, old gentleman retorted the young
soubrette, with mischevous smile, you
have made nice mess of it Do you know
who the lady is you have spoken to? No
other than Adelni Bsrberini herself-now
Mrs. Henry Thorndike Van Puyten.'
The poor old fiddler's CONSERVATION may
be easier imagined than described. At first
he insisted on going up stairs and imploring
the 'Signora's pardon, but, yielding at
length to the voice of reason, and after NUT
| teriDg countless invocations to all the saints
whose names he could muster, he left the
| house heavily laden with victuals of every
description with which the good-uatured
Annette had stuffed his pockets If he could
have witnessed the effect his words had pro-
duced on the lady of the house the old hd-
dIers distress would have been still greater
On leaving her protege Mrs. Van Puyten
returned into the parlor and sat down on a
low stool near the fire. With heavng bo-
som, her brows contracted and her beauti.
ful black eyes shining with tears, she sat
there for long while, looking steadily into
the flames. Her whole past life appeared to
her as in a mirror. She again saw the
brilliantly Illuminated, crowded house she
heard the storm of applause rising around
her she felt once more the atmosphere of
thrilling, feverish excitement which hovers
about the mysterious and picturesque world
of the stage. 1t was there she made the &C.
quaintance of her present husband, who was
one of her most ardent admirers. Frequent
greetings in society ripened the acquain-
tance to intimacy and at length to love, or
at least. to what might have been easily
mistaken for love. He loved in her his own
vanity, the proud satisfaction of having at
tracted the notice of woman at whose feet
the richest potentates of the financial and
aristocratc world lad lain in vain. She had
lain in vain. She had been captivated by
his youth, his original wit, and last, but not
least, by the dazzling prospect of life full
of social trumphs, of all the luxures which
millions can purchase.
They were married and came to live in
New York. Two years had passed since
two years of the bitterest disappointment
Her husband, as well as the life of those cir
cles of New York society which she natural,
ly entered, proved on closer acquaintance to
be widely different from the brilliant pic.
ture the ci-devant Barberini had drawn Of
both while the charm of the unknown
still lay around them II. Thorndike var
der Puyten (of the name Thorndike and Of
his unquestionably Knickel booker descent
he was mmeasurably proud was what one
is apt to call capital fellow A thorough
sportsman, careful and experienced bust
ness man he possessed all those qualitie,
which render life enjoyable in quiet, every
day fashion, without ever becoming uncom
Portable or clashing with the ways and man
ners of the so called world In the limit
prescribed by fashion he found all that hi
heart or his Imagination could desire al
interests and pursuits lying beyond thes'
limits were put down as eccentric or i'm
proper
That the passionate Italian prima donna
accustomed from her earliest youth to tn,
hustle and freedom of stage life, should fee
from day to day more miserable in this mar
row sphere of barren social conventional
ties, was not more than might have been ex
pected. Gradually her temper changed; sh
grew fretful, melancholy violent scenes be
tween husband and wife became daily more
frequent, and were the more bitter as Meth
er of the parties felt to be in the wrong
Little by little poor Thorndike came to con
slider his home as the very reverse of Para
disc and was happy when business afforde,
him the the welcome pretext for more o
less prolonged absence. Just now he ha,
gone as far as San Francisco to inspect
mine he had an important interest in
This forced solitude had still more embittere
the signOra's temper, for she loved her hus
band still, and though tormenting him whe
he was present, missed him painfully whe
he left her. She had no intimate friend
, and derived no pleasure from a superticis
intercourse with the fashionable set t
whom her husband had intoduced her. Thu
she passed nearly all her days alone with n
other company than the bitter recollection
of her past eventful lite and repeating owe
and over again in the dreary notes of th
Venetian gondolier's chant ,Dante's verse
Nessun maggior dolore che ricordorsi denitem
fella miseria! !
The effect which the unexpected meetin
with an old associate of those happy time
o produced on the fretting mind and reb
:, heart of the artist can more easily be in
|, agined than described The old fiddler ha
by his words, which corresponded so exact
: with her innermost feelings, raised stor
y in the heart of the ex.prima donna. TT
s fever of the stage sezes on her with Vi
n controllable power.
u No ? she exclaimed to herself, springr
up from her seat by the fire, Il will not,
cannot bear it any longer. This old begg
with his fiddle is happier than I, for he
P least
A sudden idea seemed to strike her. 81