Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-01-30
MISS BRBTHERTON
By MRS. HUMPHREY WARD,

AUTHOR OF ROBERT
 "No whispering there," said Forbes, look. ing round upon them. "Oh, l know what you're after, Edward, perfectly. l hear it all with one ear"
 That" said Wallace, moving up to him, 'is physically impossible. Don't be so pug nacious We leave you the front of the box, and when we appear in your territory OUT mouths are closed. But in our own domain we claim the right of free men,"
 "Poor girll' said Forbes, with sigh. 'How she manages to tame London as she does is a marvel to mo. If she were a shade less perfect and wonderful than she is she would have been torn to pieces by you critics long ago. You have done your best as it is, only the public won't listen to you. Oh, don't suppose 1 don't see all that you sce The critical poison's in my veins just as it is in yours, but 1 hold it in check-it shan't master me. I will have my pleasure in spite of it, and when i come across anything in life that makes ne feel I will protect my feelings from it with all my might"
 "We are dunb," said Kendall, with a smile; ''otherwise I would pedantically ask you to consider what are the feelings to which the dramatic art properly and leGiti- nately appeals"
 "Oh, hang your dramatic nrt" said Forbes, firing up; "can't you take things simply and dstraightforwardly? She is there she is doing her best for you-there isn't movement or a look which isn't as glorious as that of Diana come to earth, and you won't let it charm you and conquer you, be- cause she isn't into the bargain as coufound- edly clever as you are yourselvesl We'll, it's your loss, not hers"
 My dear Mr. Forbes" said Mrs. Stuart, with her little judicial peace making air, i've shall go away contented. You will have had your sensation, they will have had .heir sense of superiority, and as for me, 1 shall get the best of it all round For, while you are here, 1 see Miss Drctherton with your eyes, and yet, as Edward will get hold of me on the way home, shan't 60 to bed without having experienced all the joys of criticism! Oh! but now, hush, and listen to this music. It is one of the best things in the evening, and we shall have the White Lady directly"
 As she spoke the orchestra, which was . good one and perhaps the most satisfactory feature i'll the performance, broke into some weird Mendeissohnian music, and when tho note of plaintiveness and mystery had been we'll established, the curtain rose upon the great armory of the castle, dim dis tinguishable light shining upon its fretted roof and masses of faintly gleaming steel. The scene which followed, in which the Countess Hlda, disguised as the traditional phantom of the Hohenzoiierns, whose appear anco bodies misfortune and death to those who behold it, throws herself across the path of her rival ill the hope of driving her and those interested in her by sheer force of ter TOT from the castle and from Berlin, had been poetically conceived, and it furnished Miss Bretherton with an admirable oppor- tunity. As the White Lady, gliding between rows of armed and spectral figures on either hand. and startling the princess and her con- pan!on by her sudden apparition in a gleam of moonlight across the floor, she was once more the representative of all that is most Poetical and romantic in physical beauty Nay, more than this; as she flung her white arms above her head, or pointed to the shrinking and fainting figure of her rival while she uttered her waiiing traditional prophecy of woe, her whole personality seemed to be invested with Q dramatic force of which there had been no trace in the long and violent scene with the prince. It was as though she was in some sort capable of ex- pressing herself in action and movement, while ill all the arts of speech she was mere crude novice. At any rate, there could be no doubt that in this one scene she realized the utmost limits of the authors ideal, and when she faded into the darkness beyond the moonlight in which she had first appeared, the house, which had been breathlessly silent during the progress of the apparition, burst into a roar of applause, in which Wallace and Kendall heartily joined.