Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-02-01


 purest delight and wonder the movements of nut hatch overhead, a creature of the wood becker kind, with delicate purple gray plumaSe, who was tapping the branch above her for insects with his large disproportionate bill, and then skimming along to sand bank little distance off, where he disappeared with his prey into his nest.
 :" 'Hap said Wallace, who is a bird lover, a truce to Balzac, and let us watch those nut hatchesl Miss Brethertons quite right to prefer them to French novels
 French novelsr she said, withdrawing her eyes from the branch above her and frowning a little at Wallace as she spoke. Please don't expect me to talk about them know nothing about them-I have never wished to-
 ''Her voice had tone almost of hauteur ill it. have noticed it before It is the tone of the famous actress accustomed to believe ill herself and her own opinion. 1 connected it, too, with all ono hears of her determina- tion to look upon herself as charged with a mission for the reform of stage morals French novels and French actressesl Ap- parently she regards them all as so many un- known horrors standing in the way of the purifcation of dramatic art by beauti- full young person with a high standard of duty. It is very oddl Evidently she is the Scotch Presbyteriau's daughter still, for all her profession and her success and her easy ways with the Sabbath! Her remark pro- duced good deal of unregenerate irritation in me. If she were first rate artist to begin with was inclined to reflect, this moral en- thusiasm would touch and charm one u good deal more; as it is, considering her position it is rather putting the cart before the horse But, of course, one can understand that it is just these traits ill her that help her to make tNa nSSin c1,a T pJ0y, and the orthodox public in general
 "Wallace and 1 went off after the nut matches, enjoying private laugh by the way over Mrs Stuart's little look of amaze ment and discomfort as Miss Bretherton de- ivered herself. When came back we found Forbes sketching her-she sitting rather flushed and silent under the tree and he drawing away and working himself at every stroke into a greater and greater enthusiasm And certainly she was as beautiful as a dream, sitting against that tree, with the brown heather about her and the young oak leaves over head. But l returned in an antagonistic frame of mind, a little out of patience with her and her beauty, and won- dering why nature always blunders some where!
 However, on the way home she had another and a pleasanter surprise for me. A carriage was waiting for us on the main road and we strolled towards it through the gorse and the trees and the rich level even- ing lights. dropped behind for some prim- roses still lingering in bloom beside little brook; she strayed, too, and we were to- gether, out of ear shot of tho rest
 s'Mr. Kendall she said looking straight at me, as handed the flowers to her, you may have misunderstood something just now. l don't want to pretend to what haven't got. I don't know French, and can't read French novels if l wished to ever so much
 "What was I to say9 She stood looking ct me seriously, a little proudly, having eased her conscience, as it seemed to me- at some cost to herself l felt at first inclined to turn the thing off with a jest, but suddenly thought to myself that too could speak my mind.
 "'Wen,'I said, deliberately, walking on beside her, you lose a good deal There are hosts of French novels which would rather not sec woman touch with the tips of her fingers; but there are others which take one into bigger world than we English people, with our parochial ways of writing and sec ing, have any notion of. George Sand car ries you full into the mid European stream you feel it flowing, you arc brought into contact with all the great ideas, all tho big interests; she is an education in herself And then Balzacl he has such a range and breadth, he teaches so much of human nature, and with such conscience, such force of representation It's tho same with their novels as with their theatre. Whatever other faults he may have, Q first rate French man of the artistic sort takes 'moro pains over his work than anybody else in the world. They don't shirl, they throw their life blood into it, whether It's acting, or painting, or writing. You've never seen Desforets, thinks-uo, of course not, and you will be gone before she comes again What pity!'
 "Miss Bretherton picked one of my prim- roses ruthlessly to pieces and flung it away from her with one of her nervous gestures I am not sorry she said. Nothing would have induced me to go and see her.
 "'1ndeedr l said, waiting little curiously for what she would say next.
 It's not that I am jealous of her. she exclaimed, with quick, proud look at me; not that don't believe she's great actress; but l can't separate her acting from what she is herself. It is women like that who bring discredit on the whole profession-it is women like that who mako people think that no good woman can be an actress. resent it, and mean to take the other line. want to prove, if l can, that woman may be an actress and still be O lady, still be treated Just as you UreaC Cne women you know and respectl I mean to prove that there need never be 0 word breathed against her, that she is anybody's equal, and that her private life is her own and not the public's. It makes my blood boil to hear the way people-espe- cially men-talk about Mme. Desforets: there is not one of you who would let your wife or your sister shake hands with her, and yet you rave about her; how you talk as if there were nothing in the world but genius and French geniusp
 Ut struck mo that had got to something very much below the surface in Miss Breth- erton. It was curious outburst; remem- Der how often her critics had compared her to Desforets, greatly to her disadvantage Was this championship of virtue quite genu- inc or was it merely the best means of de lending herself against rival by the help of British respectabilityl
 "'Mme. Desforets,' said, perhaps little dryly, is riddle to her best friends, and probably to hersclf she does thousand wild, imprudent, bad things if you will, but she is the greatest actress the modern world has seen, and that's something to have done for your generation. To have moved the feelings and widcned the knowledge of thou