San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-02-19

ence so that the Slgnt OF his trim person
bearing down upon us was a surprise, He
and the BrethcrtOn party, however bad been
going about together for several days, so
shat he and she had plenty of gossip in COM
mon. Mrs Bretherton's enthusiasm about
Venice is of n very naive, hot, outspoken
kind. 1t seems TO me that she is a very sus-
eeptible creature. She lives her life fast and
crowds into it greater number Of sensations
than most people. All this zest and pleasure
must consume vast amount of nervous
Sorce, but it makes her very refreshing to
people US blaSe as Paul and ! are. Ny first
feeling about her is very much what yours
was Personally, there seems TO be all the
stuff in her of which an actress is made Will
she some day stumble upon the discovery Of
how TO bring her own individual fame and
force TO bear upon her art! | should think it
not unlikely, and, altogether | feel as
though should take more hopeful view of
her intellectually than you do You see, my
dear EuStaCe, you men never realize how
clever we women are, how fast we learn and
how quickly we catch up hints from all quar-
tiers under heaven and improve upon them.
An actress so young and so sympathetic as
Isabel Bretherton must still be very much of
an unknown quantity dramatically know
YOU think tEas the want of training is fatal,
and that popularity will stereotype her
faults 1t may be so; but | am inclined to
think, from my first sight of her, that she is
a nature that will gather from life rather
what stimulates it than what dulls and vul-
CARRIES it, Altogether, when | compare nv
first impressions of her with the image of her
left by your letters, feel that | have been
pleasantly surprised. Only in the matter of
intelligence. Otherwise it has, of course,
been your descriptions of her that have
planted and nurtured in me that strong
sense of attraction which blosSOmed into lik-
ing at the moment of personal contact"
August 10.
This afternoon we have been out in the
gondola belonging to this modest establish
ment, with our magnificent goudolIer, Plero,
and his boy, to convey us to the Lido. got
Miss Bretherton to talk to me about her
Jamaica career. She made us all laugh with
her accounts of the blood and thunder pieces
in which the audiences OF the Kingston
theatre revelCd. She seems generally TO have
played the Bandits Daughter the Snug
gler's Wife, or The European DamSel Car
ried OF by Indians or some other thrilling
elemental parsonage of the kind. The White
Lady was, apparently, her first introduction
to a more complicated order OF play. 1t is
extraordinary, when one comes to think of
it, how little positive dramatic knowledge
she must have! She knows some Shake
speare, think-at least she mentions two or
three plays-and | gather from something
she said that she is now making the inevita-
bic study of Juliet that every actress makes
sooner or later; but Sheridan, Goldsmith,
and, of course, all the French people are
mere names to her. When | think of the
minute exhaustive training our Paris actors
go through and compare it with such state
Of nature as hers, | am amazed at what she
has done! For, after all, you know, she must
be able to act to some extent; she must know
a great deal more of her business than YOU
and | suspect, or she could not get on at all"
August l6.
"It is almost a week, see, since | wrote
to you last. During that time we have seen
a great deal more of Miss Bretherton, some
times in company with her belongings, some
times without them, and my impressions of
her have ripened very Fast. Oh, my dear
Eustace, you have been hasty-all tue world
has bee4 haSty. Isabel Bretherton's real
self is only now coming to the front, and it
is self which, as | say to myself with as
ever seen-hardly suspected even. Should l,
myself a woman, have been as blind to
woman's capabilities, / wOnder} Very hkelyI
These sudden rich developments of youth
are often beyond all calculation.
Mr.. Wallace's attitude makes me realize
moro than / otherwise could the past and
present condi ION of things. He comes and
talks to me with amazement of the changes
in her tone and outlook, of the girls sharp
ening intellect anG growing sensitiveneSS,
and as he recalls incidents and traits of the
London season-confessiOAs or judgments or
blunders Of hers, and puts them beside the
impression which he sees her TO be making on
Paul and myself begin to understand from
his talk and his bewilderment something Of
the real nature of the case intellectually,
it has been the ugly duckling' over again
Under all The crude, unhedged lmpcrfection
of her young performance, you people who
have watched her with your trained critical
eyes seem to me never to have suspected the
coming wings, the strange nascent power,
of day
What has EuStace been aboutT said Paul
to me last night after we had all returned
from rambling round and round the moonlit
piazza, and he had been describing to me his
talk with her. He ought to have seen fur
ther ahead That creature is only just begin
ming to live, and it will be life worth hav-
ing. He has kindled it, too, as much as
anybody. or course, we have not seen her
act yet, and ignOrant-yeS, she is certainly
gnorant-though not so much as imagined.
But as for natural power aud delicacy Of
mind, there can be no question at all about
themr
'''l don't know that Eustace did question