The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-12-26
A BALLET QUEENS PERIL.
A SCENE ON THE STAGE THAT
WAS NOT ONrHE PROGRAMME.

a SCENE ON LEE OAA06 mai
WAS NOT ONrHE PROGRAMME.
Escape From He Cage OF Vicious
Iioness, and he Mad Flight for
Safety of the Ballet, While Queen
Nab Alone Remains, and Her Lover,
With Only a tame, Vanquishes the
Beast.
yrom the fencl of BEet.
At tue time spek Of they were playing
at the theater of he Porte Montmartre a
marvellous fairy spectacle, where were de-
filed all those admirble and charming crea-
tions of the Shakeperean epoch, Cymbe-
line and Portia. D,sdemona and Cordelia,
Ophelia, Juliet nd hundred others,
blonde as wheat q blacker than Erebus
It was called, if remember correctly, ia
Songe dune Nui; oliver"
In the last act before the apotheosis, and
while band Of Amazons, cuirassed in
silver, bravely Struggled against troop Of
warriors harnesed in trappings of cloth of
Of gold, they exhibited an immense cage
full of African lions and savage panthers
that were governed with the prudence of
hero and the courage Of sorcerer by a
red-headed ETglishman, dull and phleg-
matte, a true bsast tanner by vocation, and
rarely indulgin. in foolish business.
But it was MT assuredly in the amiable
hope of seeiugthe tanner devoured by his
beasts that Jordan Montsgnac went every
evening to the Porte Montmartre, though
he might have bund certain pleasure from
that meal without cost to the royal captives
No, if he eaered every evening three
minutes before The rising Of the curtain If
be took his placs in chair No. So, first row of
the balcony; If he trained his lorguette on
the scene as sool as the three blows sounded,
it was because he little Lucie Nile. Lucie
Bell played ir "The Dream OF Winters
Nightn the roleof Queen Nab"
Well, if Mile Lucle Bell had not yet be-
come the greet oantatrice that London,
Vienna and Petersburg quarreled with Paris
about, she was certainly the most graceful,
the prettest aid most amiable child 1t was
possible to find in any European city. More
than that, tho world declared, without a
smile, that she was as good as wise, and that
which was most astonishing was, the world
sincerely believed 1t.
A tiny littb maiden, SO tiny that one
might have cloihed her with lily leaf and
crowned her with cedar straw, Lucie Bel
had hair the cdor of q sunset cloud, which
enveloped her entirely as in a luminous
aureole. A GOLDEN fog you might have
called it. ligh and shining, its wonderful
meshes twisting and curling in a thousand
intricate and coquettish tendrils.
Under this floating veil a wide white
brow, eyes the color of a nlyostois blossom.
but which became at times a steel gray or a
pale sea-green, shaded with long brown
lasbes.
Then a knocking, laughing mouth, scarlet
lips and a mole Ike mustard seed coming
1-@sn -, Of LII,
dimple, when Nile. Lucie Boil saw fit r.
display her pearly little teeth in a ravishing
smile.
For the first time in his life, Loredan
Montagnac, cool, positive and correct gen.
tleman that he was, com pretended on see
ing these strangeand splendid eyes illumi.
Mating that radiant visage that poets were
truly most impudent in daring to compare
eyes to stars.
Moreover, this darling little Lucie Bell
had o waist like wasp, flexible stem in q
corslet Of lilac velvet, embroidered with
silver May lilies and her petticoats made
Of o pearl-gray gauze, were besprinkled
and sparkling, seemingly with whole
armament of silvery crescents and constel.
lations.
Her slender finger held an ivory scepter
and on the diadem of her golden hair rested
crown of white cyclamen blossoms
mingled with humnling birds planes. The
Fairy Of Caprice, of Fancy, Of Chimeras, OF
Dreams had never been more handsomely
appareled.
To conceal nothing from you, our friend
Loredan. wearied as he was with the vani-
ties of this world, felt q lively passion con-
suming his heart at sight of this human
fairy-a heart already SO old that he be-
lieved it completely dried UP, hardened. ex-
tinct, like volcano where the fiery lava
no longer boils.
But he Yves i'll at case in his mind re-
garding this love of his, fer he had no illu.
sions left, having sowed somewhat indis
crimlnately all these charming companions
of early youth, which had fled away one by
one, never to return. And really, to love
young girl and to make her love you,
when one has brow touched, or threaten
Ing to be touched. with snow-was it not g
madnesss
He loved her. nevertheless, without hope
and without desire Even as the old Ali
ghieri, remounting from Hades, adored Be-
atrice, 80 did Loredan Montagnac cherish
Lucie Bel. though he had never thought
or doing her O wrong. Never for an instant
She ives the joy Of his heart, the fairy OF
bis dreams, the friend of his soul He saw
her every where; he ceaselessly evoked her
adored image, and truly her beautiful azure
eyes, with their velvety regard, were the
lnextinguishable torches of his life.
And Lucie Bell was better in thousand
and one ways than the other daughters Of
Eve, her sisters. She neither knew how tc
stnilingly lie. to make jest Of the suffer
ings OF others, nor how to mock at delicaciei
OF sentiment She played the role of Cell
meme neither in the city nor on the boards
of the theater.
She was not one of those beautiful sirens
frightfully coquestish and deliciously per.
hdlous, who calculate to ravish and ravage
at one and the same time, never 10 be q
loser, and always a gamer in that game Of
chance where even the richest may ruin
tnemselves-the game Of love.
Then, Loredan had never even spoken tc
her, but contentedly enshrined himself ii
mat fated armchair No. SO, where every
evening one saw him, glasses in hand, dill
gently attentive to the corteges, ballots
pantomimes and other Accomplishments Of
the bewitching Nab.
1.-THE end Of a fortnight he took so much
comfort in contemplating his idol that he
determined to give himself the additional
pleasure OF assisting to adorn her pretty
person. He sent her, therefore, next morn
ing, a set of turquoise, the following day q
srlng OF Oriental pearls, and the day after
ref 49,, -