Morning journal and courier., 1881-07-23

| all her future hung? The examiners were l for the moment the only persons who took | it quietly, being, as it were, struck dumb by
 the rashness of the act. Before they could I recover themselves the courageous young | creature was made to feel, through the kind ly counsel of friends, that she had gone a l little too far, and she consented to hold out 1 her hand for the prize which she had not 1 earned The grim ones, being not wholly wanting in a sense of the ridiculous, were ! glad to be out of it on these terms and there ! was peace once more in the land. Then Miss I Griswold went back to work for that first 1 prize. Once more the revolving year brought i the dread conclave together in that queer lit [ tie theatre at the Conservatoire, which is ! only not pulled down because the architects ! despair of second stroke of luck equal to the first which gave the place it's magical | acoustic. Ambroise Thomas sat in the pres l idents chair and other musicians of distinc- 1 tion were to right and left of him. One can- ! didate after another came before them to warble for honors, and more than one, I as- sure you, succeeded in nothing but the qua | yer. Miss Griswold's prize essay was the jewel scene from Faust, /" and when she had l handed it in in the form of flood of lark like melody there was no question as to the l name of the winner. The unwonted tumult among their usually serene highnesses of the musical world was decisive on this point A week after she was engaged at the Grand Opera to make her debut in Anabroise Thomas greatest work.
 But this was only the beginning of a new set of difficulties. Miss Griswold was en- gagged, but she soon had reason to fear that this had been done not with view of bring ing her out but rather of keeping her in. Her salary was to be mere hush money. The truth is, the irruption of this Fair Bar barian into the classic land of art had excited the iveliest jealousy of another lady whose word was law at the opera. Week after oh fha debut, and as the weeks heightened into months Miss Griswold's chances of achieving
 the distinction for which she had toiled and
 waited so patiently seemed more remote than
 ever. It was the time for decisive measures,
 and this delicate girl was just the one to take
 them. One morning she called with her
 mother on M. Vaucorbeil, the director of the
 great house, who is really about as awful
 person to face as & minister of state, and civ
 lily requested him to accept her resignation.
 But why" said the amazed NJ. Vaucorbeil
 Monsieur do not care to be paid for do-
 ing nothing. l must make my debut, and I
 begin to fear that am never to make it here"
 The director took time to consider his an- l
 swer, and 1t was terrible one whr n it came l
 within week she was to make her debut. 1
 Was the issue to be an awful warning to |
 impatient young ladies, or an awful warning |
 to jealous old ones? /? Of course the debutante |
 cruelty agitated. It was inevitable &C.,
 cording to all the precedents-she was with |
 in sight of the goal From the moment of |
 that ''call" to the night of her appearance |
 she simply never once closed her eyes, but l
 kept perfectly wakeful through dark and |
 light, with the dark hours for feverish brood | ing on that coming tr1al. She saw no one |
 but her relations, shutting herself up with |
 her musical score, with her apprehensions of l
 failure, and with grim determination to |
 succeed, and letting the two last fight it out l
 between them whenever pause in the music |
 kl. 11o kIo,, ,,,,1.k1 1c destiny. The great Opera House was, I dare l
 say about the same to most people as on l
 other nights but what hall of the Areop- l agus, @ secret sessions house of the Council l
 of Ten, a Star Chamber and a Supreme l
 Court of the Inquisition in one it must have l
 seemed to her Criticism in the pit, society |
 in the boxes, ''the colony" everywhere, and, |
 outside of all their worships, the French pub
 lie, without single prejudice in her favor,
 though, to do them justice, with an hon.
 est determination to let her win if
 she could. Then came the awful
 up and when her mother sent her-with what invocations for aid it would be hardly be-
 coming to mention-from the wings to the stage. What passed then for the next quar- ter of an hour all but one person could tell you-and that one is Miss Griswold She only knows that as she sang her voice seemed to belong to another, so strangely uncon- scious was she of any exercise of will in mak- ing it heard; and then she ran off with the dreadful conviction that she had failed to please, and that her whole life scheme was miserable wreck. But enthusiastic French men were at the wings, among them the com poser himself, and they rushed in their effu- sive way to congratulate her. She thought at first 1t was irony, but there was no mis- taking the tone in which they told her that she had been superb. In the next scene the same sickening sense of disparity between aim and achievement was beginning to tell upon her. when she revived by the encouraging sotto-Uoce of Hamlet ''Very fne!'' "Splendid !'' ''Go on!" Here, in fact, and ali through the opera, the chivalry of the French came out. From the highest to the lowest, every one tried to keep her in heart with these generous stage whispers The wicked King forgot his wickedness for moment to murmur Courage" The des- pairing Queen assured her in the intervals of musical introspection that her voice was
 charming" and the very ballet girls who pirouetted around her in the final scene said ''Tres 6iep, naddenoiseJEe.' It was twofold triumph, for not only did Miss Griswold sing as We have seen, but her acting matched her voice. Her eyes seemed to draw their light from inner fires; her attitude and gesture were statuesque study of despair. When she tottered of the stage to her hge, pursued as 1t were by the applause the other side of the curtain, she found the ol composer ready to cry over her for joy of this interpretation which had brought back to him in all its freshness the sweetest poetic vision of his prime. more beautiful triumph was 1n store when she reached the room where her mother sat. Her uncle, Bret Harte, who had come all the way from Glasgow for the per formance, took his turn next. T knew you had learn d to sing,'' he said, but where did you learn to act ?" The position was conquered. The next day the papers said the only thing about 1t they could say. The public had spoken, and where the pubic speaks with sufficient determination the pa- pers will be sure to follow. It Is trade secret, and I do not know that ought to let it out There were, indeed, one or two carp ing exceptions but they have only served to set off the large proportions of the triumph One gentleman discovered that the French was not absolutely pure, thus letting hls judgment on the voice go asit were by default and another gentleman was almost sure that somewhere or other in the third act and some time or other between 10 and II, he had heard half-quarter of note which was not quite to his liking. There IS really noth- ing much more remarkable on the large theatIe of history than these victories won on the mimic scene The day before the debutante in opera is nothing-a little girl going to her mamma to take her music les son. The day after, she has her choice of attention from all the most distinguished 1n society and in public life Soon after that decisive nlghe MISS GflsWold ana ner no6neE l were at Gounods house by invitation, and the great composer was playing to her and talking to her with that mixture of seraphlc inspiration and boyish frankness which IS all his own He was in fact paying his court in the most assiduous fashion to induce her, to take the chief part in an oratorio which he has written for the Birmingham Festival and to appear as Gretchen in the approaching re- yiyal of hIs t'Faust''-and all this within one short month of absolute obseurity. Truly, a great voice is fire thing, but there is one thing finer, and that is the heart of hero in the breast of debutante.
 Patriotism on a Peak.