San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-02-14

her profession and her success and her easy
ways with the Sabbath Her remark pro-
luced good deal of unregenerate irritation
in me. II she we're first rate artist 10 begin
with, | was inclined to reflect, this moral en-
thusiasm would touch and charm one good
deal more, as it is, considering her position,
il is rather putting the cart before the horse.
But, of course, one can understand that it Is
just these traits in her that help her to- make
the impression she does on London society
and the orthodox public in general.
"Wallace and went off after the nut
matches, enjoying a private laugh by tho
way over Mrs. Stuarts little look of amaze
ment and discomfort as Miss Bretherton de-
livered herself When we 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 | returned in an
antagoniStic frame of mind, little out of
patience with her and her beauty and won
dering why nature always blunders some
wherel
"However, on the way home she bad
another and u plcasanter surprise for me A
carriage was waiting for us on the main
road and VIC strolled towards it through tho
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 the rest.
"'Mr. Kendall she said, looiius straight
at me, as handed the flowers to her, Won
may have misunderstood something Just
now. don't want to pretend to what /
haven't got. | don't know French, and |
can't read French novels if wished TO ever
80 much
What was TO sayi She stood looking at
me seriously, little proudly, having eased
her conscience, rs it seemed TO me- at some
cost to herself. felt at first inclined to
turn the thing OF with jest, but suddenly
thought to myself that | too could speak my
mind
well said, deliberately, walking on
beside her, 'you lose good deal There are
hosts Of French novels which would rather
not see u woman touch with the tips OF her
fingers; but there arc others which take one
into bigger world than We English people,
with our psrochial ways Of writing and see
ing, have any notion OF. George Sand car
ries you full into the mid European stream
you feel it flowing, you are brought into
contact with all the great ideas, all the big
Interests; she is an education in herself
And then BalzRcl he has such . range end
breadth, he teaches one 30 much of human
nature and with such conscience, such force
Of representation tts the same with their
novels as with their theatre Whatever
G., -. h.v . E,Sf 20
man of the artistic sort takes moro pains
over his work than anybody else in the
world. They don's shirk, they throw their
life blood into it, whether it's &C ing, or
painting, or writing You've never seen
Desforcts, | thinkl-uo, Of course not, and
you will DO gone before she comes again.
What pity!
miss Bretherton picked one of my prim-
roses ruthleSSly to pieces and dun. it away
from her with one of her nervous gestures.
Il am not sorry she said. Nothing would
have induced me to go and see her.
"'lnde Dr. | said, waiting little curiously
for what she would say next.
Its not that | am jealous of her, she
exclaimed, with quick, proud look at me;
not that don't believe she's q great actress;
but can't separate her acting from what
she Is herself It is women like that who
bring dlscredit on the whole profession-it is
women like that who make people think that
no good woman can DO an actress resent
it, and mean to take the other line. want
to prove, If can, that a woman may DO an
actress and still be a lady, still be treated
just as you treat the women you know and
respect! mean to prove that there need
never be a word breathed against her, that
she is anybodys equal, and that her private
life is her own and not the public'S. 1t makes
my blood boil to hear tho way people-espe-
cially mel-talk about Nine Desforets;
there il not one Of you who would let your
vito or your sister shake hands with her, and
yet you rave about her, how you tall; as If
there were nothing in the world but genius
and French geniusI'
at struck mo that had got to something
very much below tho surface in Miss Broth
erton. 10 was curious outburst, remem-
Der how often Der critics had compared her
to Destore5s, greatly to her disadvantage.
Was this championship OF virtue quite Genu-
inc or was it merely the best means OF de-
Tending berself against q rival by the help of
British respectabllityi
mime Desforets,' | said, perhaps little
dryly, is riddle to her best friends, and
probably to herself, she does a thousand
wild, impcudent, bad things If you will, but
she Is the greatest actres. the modern world
has seen, and that's something to have done
for your generation. To have moved the
feelings and widcned tho knowledge Of thou
sands by such delicate, sucL marvellous, such
conscientious work as hers-that is an
achievement 30 great, so mastery that for
one will throw no stones at herr
at seemed to me all through as though |