Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-02-15
MISS BRETHERTON
By MRS. HUMPHREY WARD,

against his tyranny, the news is brought her
 by BeatriZ that Fernan, in his determination
 to avoid the duel with Macias on the morrow,
 which the duke, in accordance with knightly
 usage. has been forced to grant, has devised
 means for assassinating his rival in prison
 Naturally, her whole soul is thrown into an
 effort to save her lover She bribes his guards.
 She sends Beatriz to denounce the treach-
 cry of her husband to the duke, and, finally,
 she herself penetrates into the cell of Macias,
 to warn him of the fate that threatens him
 and to persuade him to fly.
 It was, indeed, dramatic moment when
 the gloom of Macias' cell was first broken by
 the glimmer of the hand lamp, which re-
 vealed to the vast, expectant audience the
 form of Elvira standing on the threshold,
 searching the darkness with her shaded eyes;
 and, in the great love scene which followed,
 the first sharp impression was steadily deep
 ened word by word and gesture after gesture
 by the genius of the actress. Elvira fluids
 Macias in a mood of calm and even joyful
 waiting for the morrow His honor is satis-
 fled; death and battle are before him and
 the proud Castilian is almost at peace. The
 vision of Elvira's pale beauty and his quick
 intuition of the dangers she has run in fore
 ing her way to him produce sudden revul-
 sion of feeling towards her, a flood of passion
 ate reconciliation; he is at her feet once more:
 he feels that she is true, that she is his. She,
 in frenzy of fear, cannot succeed for ali
 her efforts in dimming his ecstasy of joy or
 In awakening him to the necessity of flight,
 and at last he even resents her terror for
 him. her cntreaties that he will forget her and escape
 "6reat Heavens!' he says, turning from
 her i'll despair, ''it was not love- it was only pity that brought her here" Then, broken down by the awful pressure of the situation,
 her love resists his no longer, but rather she sees i'll the full expression of her own heart the only chance of reconciling him to life and of persuading him to take thought for his own safety
 Elvlra-See, Macias, these tears-each one that proud will of yours this hapIess woman must needs open all her weak heart to you, if she must needs tell you that she lives only in your life and dies ill your death, her lips will brace itself even to that pitiful confession! An me! these poor cheeks have been so left 0Ao'
 10 her thls supreme avowal is the only means of making him believe her report of his danger, and turn towards flight; but in nm It produces joy which banishes all thought of personal risk and makes separa- tion from her worse than death When she bids him fly, he replies by one word, "Come! and not till she has promised to guide him to the city gates and to follow him later on his Journey will he move a step to- wards freedom. And then, when her dear nand IS about to open to him the door of his prison, it is too late. Fernan and his assas sins are at hand, the stairs are surrounded. and escape is cut off. Again, in these last moments, when the locked door still holds between them and the death awaiting them. her mood Is one of agonized terror, not for herself, but for him; while he, exalted far above all fear, supports and calms her.
 Maclas Think no more of the world which has destroyed us! We owe it nothing -nothlngl Come, the bonds which linked us to it arc forever broken Death is at the door; we arc already deadl Colsle, and make death beautiful; tell mo you love, love, love me to the end!
 Then, putting her from him. be goes out to meet his enemies. There is clamor outside. ana he returns wounded to death, pursued by ternan and his men. He falls, and Elvira defends him from her husband with q look and gesture so terrible that he and the uur- derers fall back before her as though she was some Ghastly averaging spirit Then, bending over him, she snatches the dagger rom the grasp of the dying man, saying to 'AAAA " itA a Foics lilto Wnlcn isabel BrethertOu threw wealth of pitiful tenderness: "There is but one way left, beloved Your wife that should havo been, that is, saves herself and 
 And Ill the dead silence that followed ber last murlnur rose upon the air as the armed men, carrying torches, crowded round her. See, Maclas, the torches-how they shinel Bring more-bring more-and light-our festival!n
 "Eustacel Eustacel There now they have let her go Poor child, poor childl how is she to stand this night after night? Eustace. do you hearf Let us go in to her now quick, before she is quite surrounded. I don't want to stay, but must just see her. and so must Paul. An, Mir. Wallace has gone already, but he described to me how to lind her. This wayl"
 And Mime. de Chateauvieux, brushing the tears from her eyes with one han took Ken 1aIs arm with the other, and hurried him along the narrow passages leading to the door on to the stage, M. dc Chateauvieux follow ing them, his keen, French face gl;stenine with quiet but intense satisfaction.
 AS for Kendall, every sense in him was ,oVetously striving to hold and fix the ex- perlences of the last half hour The white untitled figure standing in the turret door. the faint lamplight streaming on the bent head and upraised arm-those tones of self lorSetful passion, drawn straight, as it were. from the pure heart of love-the splendid snergy of that last defiance of fate and cir 1 low vibrations of her dying | Tords-the power of the actress and the per 'onality of the woman-au these different impressions were holding wild war within him as he hastened on, with Marie clinging to his arm. And beyond the little stage door | 'he air seemed to be even more heavily charged 1 with excitement than that of the theatre i For, as Kendall emerged with his sister. his attention was perforce attracted by the little ;rowd of persons already assembled around 'he figure of Isabel Bretherton, and. as his l sye travelled over them, he realized with a | 'resh start the full compass of the change which had taken place. To all the more sminent persons in that group Miss 6rstherton had been six months before m ignorant and provincial beauty. | good enough to create social craze. md nothing more. Their presence round aer at this moment, their homage. the smotion visible everywhere, proved that all | was different, that she had passed tie barrier which once existed between her and the world which knows and thinks, and had been drawn within that circle of individual , ties which, however undefined, is still the