Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-02-02
CHI AFTER V.

During the three weeks which elapsed be- tween the two expeditions of the Sunday League' Kendall saw Miss Bretherton two or three times under varying circumstances. One night le took 1t into his head to go to the pit of the Celliope, and came away more persuaded than before that as an actress there was small prospect for her. Had she been an ordinary mortal, he thought, the original stuff in her might have been disciplined into something really valuable by the common give and take, the normal rubs and difficult ties of her profession. But as it was she had been lifted at once by the force of one natural endowment into a position which, from the artistic point of view, seemed to him hopeless. Her instantaneous success dependent as 1t was on considerations wholly outside those of dramatic art-had denied her all the advantages which are to be won from struggle and from lsborious and grad ual conquest And more than this, it had deprived her of an ideal; it had tended to make her take her own performance as the measure of the good and possible. For, naturally, it was too much to expect that she herself should analyze truly the sources and reasons of her popularity. She must inevita- bly, believe that some, at least, of it was due to her dramatic talent in itself. Ut is very possible that am not quite fair to her. She has all the faults which repel mo most. could get over anything but this impression of bare blank ignorance which she makes upon me. And as things arc at present, it Is impossible that she should learn. It might be interesting to have the teaching of her! But it could only be done by some one with whom she came naturally into frequent contact. Nobody could thrust himself in upon her. And she seems to know very few people who could be of any use to her."
 On another occasion he came across her fin the afternoon at Mrs. Stuart's The conver- sation turned upon his sister, Mime. de Cha teauvieux, for whom Mrs. Stuart had a warm but very respectful admiration They had met two or three times in London, and Mime. de Chateauvieux's personal distinction, her refinement, her information, her sweet urbanity of manner, had made great i'm precision upon the lively little woman, who, from the lower level of her own moro com monplace and conventional success in society, felt an awe struck sympathy for anything so rare, so unlike the ordinary type. Her inti- macy with Miss Bretherton had not gone far before the subject of ''Mr. Kendals interest ing sister" had been introduced, and cn this particular afternoon, as Kendall entered her drawing room, his ear was caught at once by tho sound of Marie's name Miss Bretherton drew him impnlsively into the conversation, and he found himself describing his sisters mode of life, her interests, her world, her be- longings, with a readiness such as he was not very apt to show in the public discussion of any subject connected with himself But Isabel Bretherton's frank curiosity, her kind ling eyes and sweet parted lips and that strain of romance in her which made her so quickly responsive to anything which touched her imagination, were not easy to resist. She was delightful to his eye and sense, and he was as conscious as he had ever been of her delicate personal charm Be sides, 1t was pleasant to him to talk of that Parisian world, in which he was himself vitAlly interested, to any one so naive and fresh. Her ignorance, which on the stage had annoyed him, in private life had its par ticular attractiveness. And, with regard to this special subject, he was conscious of breaking down prejudice; he felt the pleasure of conquering great reluctance in her. Evidently on starting in London she had set herself against everything that she identified with the great French actress who had absorbed the theatre going public during the previous season; not from personal jeal- ousy, as Kendall became ultimately con