Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-01-30

tradition-or she must have the knowledes which comes from mere living, from tho ac- cumulations of personal thought and expori- ence Miss Bretherton had neither. She had extraordinary beauty and charm, and certainly, as Kendall admitted, some original quickness He was not inclined to go so far as to call it "power" But this quiclness, which would have been promising in debu- tante less richly endowed on the physical side, seemed to him to have no future in her. Ut will be checked" he said to himself, ''by her beauty and all that flows from it. She must come to depend more and more on the physical charm, and on that only. The whole pressure of her success is and will be that way"
 Miss Bretherton's inadequacy. indeed, be- came more and more visible as the play was gradually and finely worked up to its climax in the last act. In the final scene of all, tho prince, who, by 0 series of accidents, has dis covered the Countess Hildas plans, lies in wait for her in the armory, where ho has reason to know she means to try the effect of Q third and last apparition upon the princess. She appears; he suddenly confronts her; and, dragging her forward unveils before himself and the princess the death like features of his old love. Recovering from the shock of detection, the countess pours out upon them both a fury of jealous passion, sinking by degrees into pathetic trance like invoca- ton Of the past, under the spell of which the princes anger melts away, and the little princess terror and excitement change into eager pity Then, when she sees him almost reconGuered, and her rival weeping beside her, she takes the poison vial from her breast, drinks it, and dies in the arms of the man For whose sake she has sacrificed beauty, character and life itself.
 great actress could hardly have wished for better opportunity. The scene was so obviously beyond Miss Bretherton's resources that even the enthusiastic house, Kendall fancied, cooled down during the progress of it. There were signs of restlessness, there vas even a little talking in some of the back rows, and at no time during the scene was there any of that breathless absorption in what was passing on the stage which the dramatic material itself amply deserved.
 "I don't think this will last very long, |" said Kendall in Wallaces ear. "There is something tragic in a popularity like this; it rests on something unsound. and one feels that dis Rster is not far off. The whole thing i'm presses me most painfully. She has soma capacity, of course; if only the conditions had been diferent-if she had been born within a hundred miles of the Paris conserva- toire, if her youth had been passed in a so- ciety of more intellectual weight-but, as it is, this very applause is ominous, for tho beauty must go sooner or later, and there is nothing else"
 "You remember Desforets in this same thea Ire last year in 'Adrienne Lecouvreurr said Wallace. What gulf between the right thing and the wrong! But come, we must do our duty" and be drew Kendall forward to- wards the front of the box, and they saw tho whole house on its feet, clapping and shout ing, and the curtain just being drawn back to let the White Lady and the Prince appear before 1t. She was very pale. but the storm of applause which greeted her seemed to re- vive her, and she swept her smiling glance round the theatre, until at last it rested with special gleam of recognition on the party i'll the box. especially on Forbes, who was outdoing himself in enthusiasm. She was called forward again and again, until at last the house was content, and the general exit began.
 The instant after her white dress had dis appeared from the stage little page boy knocked at the door of the box with a mes sage that Miss Bretherton begs that Mrs. Stuart and her friends will come and see her." Out they all dropped along a narrow passage and up short staircase, until 0 rough temporary door was thrown open and they found themselves in the wings, the great stage, on which the scenery was being hastily sAAAASNb y AAA6 " oaAoAA AA6Ap AAc ASAGS "cIo being put out; only a few gas jets were left burning round pillar, beside which stood Isabel Bretherton, her long phantom dress lying i'll white folds about her, her uncle and aunt and her manager standing near. Every detail of the picture-the spot of brilliant light bounded on all sides by dim, far reach ing vistas of shadow, the figures hurrying across the back of the stage the moving ghost-like worknen all around, and in the midst that white hooded, languid fgure-re- vived in Kendal's memory whenever in after days his thoughts went wandering back to the first moment of real contact between his own personality and that of Isabel Breth- erton