San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-02-13
MISS BRETHERT0N
By MRS. HUMPHREY WARD,
AUTHOR OF ROBERT ELsMERE."

the royalties, including the pink and white
maiden who is to be Prince WilhelmS fate,
and the royal quadril begins. Tho prince
leads his princess 70 her place, when it is
/ discovered that another lady is required to
complete the figure, and an aide-de-camp is
dispatched into the ballroom to fetch one.
| He returns, ushering in the beautiful Hilda
Won WeiSSenSten.
From this moment the audience had been
| impatiently waiting, and when the dazzling
| dgure, in its trailing, pearl embroidered
robes, appeared in the doorway of the ball
| room, storm of applause broke forth again
and again, and for SONS minutes delayed the
prog ess of the scene.
Nothing, indeed, could have been better
calculated than this opening TO display the
peculiar gifts Of the actress The quadrille
was a stately spectacular display, in which
splendid dress and stirring music and the
effects of rhythmic motion had been brought
freely into play for the delight of the behold
ers. Between the figures there was a little
skillfully managed action, mostly in dumb
show. The movements of the jealous beauty
and of her faithleSs lover were invested
throughout with sufficient dramatic meaning
to keep up the thread of the play. But it
was not the dramatic aspect of the scene for
which the audience cared, it was simply for
the display which it made possible of Isabel
Bretherton's youth and grace and loneliness.
They hung upon her every movement and
Kendall found himself following her with the
same eagerneSs of eye as those about him,
lest any phase of that embodied poetry should
escape HIM.
In this introductory scene the elements
which went to make up the spell she exer-
cised over her audience were perfectly dis
tinguiShable. Keudals explanation of it to
himself was THAT it was based upon an ex-
ceptioral natural endowment OF physical
perfection, informed and spiritualized by
certain moral qualities, by simplicity, frank
ness, truth Of nature. There was kind Of
effluence Of youth, of purity, OF strength
about her which it was impossible not to feel,
and which evidently reused the enthusiastic
sympathy of tho great ma jority of those who
saw her.
Forbes was sitting in the front Of the box
with Mrs. Stuart, his shaggy gray head and
keen lined face attracting considerable atten-
ton in their neighborhood. He was in his
most expansive mood; the combativeness of
au hour before had disappeared, and the ar
dent, susceptible temperament OF the man
was absorbed in admiration, in the mere SEN
suous artists delight in stirring and beautiful
series Of impressions. When the white dress
disappeared through the doorway of the ball
room he followed it with sigh of regret. and
during the scene which followed between the
prince and his intended bride ho hardly
looked at the stage. The princess, indeed,
was all that Mrs. Stuart pronounced her to
be; she was sitter and cIuInsier than even
her Teutonic role could justify, and she
marched laboriously through ucr cry proper
and virtuous speeches, evidently driven on
by an uneasy consciousness that the audience
was only eager to come to the end of them
and of her.
In the little pause which followed the dis
appearance of the newly betrothed pair into
the distant ballroom, Mrs. Stuart leaned
backward over her chair and said 20 Kendall:
"Now. then, Mr.. Kendall, prepare your
criticisms! In the scene which is just COM
ing Miss Bretherton has good deal more to
do than to look pretty"
'Oh, but you forget our compact" said
Kendall. Remember you are to be the judge
of our behavior at the end 1t is not the part
of judge to tempt those on whom he is to
deliver judgment to crime"
Don't put too much violence on YOURSELF"
said Mrs. Stuart, laughing "You and Ed
ward can have the back Of the box to talk
what hereSy you like in, so long as you let
Mr.. Forbes perform his devotiOns undiS
turbed."
Atthis Forbes half turned round, and shook
his great mane, under which cleaned a couu-
tenance Of comedy menace, ut the two men
behind him. But III another instant the
tones Of Isabel Brethertons voice riyeted his
attention, and the eyes of all those in the box
were once more turned towards the stage.
The scene which followed was one Of the
most meritoriOuS passages in the rather
heavy German play from which the White
Lady" had been adapted. 1t was intended to
show the romantic and passionate character
Of the countess, and to suggest that vein Of
extravaganza and daring in her which was
the explanation Of the subsequent acts. In
the original the dialogue had cert ain Ger
man force and intensity, which lost nothing
Of its occasional heavineSs in the mouth of
Halves, the large boned, staggering person
age who played the prince. An actress with
sufficient force of feeling, and an artistic
sense subtle enough to suggest to her tho nee
cssary II mobilization, could have made a great
mark in it. But the first words almost re-
vealed Isabel Bretherton's limitations, and
be. ore two minutes were over Kendall was
conscious of complete collapse of that
sympathetic relation between him AMI the
actress which the first scene had produced
In another sentence or two the spell had been
irrevocably broken, and he seemed to him
self to have passed from state of sensitive
ness to all that was exquisite and rare in her
to state Of mere irritable consciousness of
her defects l. Mas evident to him that in q