The Washington times., 1894-07-29


Author of Fighting the Air Her Father:
Name Little White Souls" "Stop
Thief" &c, &c, &c.
/ shall never forget the pantomime season
OF 1886. 1t was very successful one. Mana
gers WED with each ether who should pro-
duce the finest spectacle. and no one of then
spared less expense than Mr.. Drumm ond, o
the Ariel theater in Silverpool. He had
secured one of the best pieces and all the
prettiest women he could lay hold of, and
Silverpool being such an important seapor,
town, full of visitors as well as residents. his
house WIS crammed night after night, and
his pantomime, The Butterfy's Ball. was
pronounced by the press to be one of the best
in England.
The first time / saw Cissie Stanley (who
played the Queen OF the Butterflies) dance
and heard her sing was not surprised at
her success. She was just the very prettest
girl l had ever seen, and though ] am a
woman | am perfectly able to appraise the
merits OF my own sex. She possessed rich
full voice, "a sweet as thrush singing In the
early morning, and her dancing was one OF
the most wonderful things had ever wit
messed. When she ran on the stage. with two
enormous transparent wings at her back, and
her light costume made to initiate the BODY
OF the insect, and executed piroutte which
almost seemed to keep her quivering in the
air. she did not appear TO dance so much as
10 fly.
Well might she have been chosen for
butterfly. 1t was her very nature to be frivo-
lous and unthinklng and careless. But she
might have spared poor Edmund Grey. She
and he and lived in the same house and
soon grew to know each other well. We were
much on Tar in the company, filling tho
part of the FAIRY Queen and Edmund that Of
the Butterfly Princes riyal-the ungainly
Toad. Often have 1 pitad the poor young
man in the arduous task h@ had undertaken.
He was not strong. His limp, thin hair and
pallid face and attenuated body all spoke OF
a weakly constitution. if not OF disease.
have seen him ready to faint in the course
OF the performance, as he lifted the huge
toad head for few minutes to breathe the
air, aud wipe away the perspiration that
streamed down his features But he would
never spare himself. He was very clever,
and he liked applause for Cissie's sake, il
not for his own, and neglected no means of
gaining it. For he was deeply and ardently
in love with her from the very beginning. and
she encouraged his admiration. if nothing
more
Sometimes I demonstrated with her on the
subject. i saw how much in earnest Edmund
was. and how little she cared for him. But
she always laughed at me and my sermons.
Mr.. Grey understood her perfectly, she
affirmed. He was not such a simpleton as
took him for. He knew it was a pleasant ac-
workmanship, and nothing more. II he
really thought it would end in any thing-with
shrug of her pretty shoulders-well, he
must be goose. She had had dozens of such
affairs. All girls had, and it would be very
dull time if she had no one to walk to and
from the theater with her, and carry her bags
and parcels, and be at her beck and call from
morning till night
Meanwhile the other artistes even down to
the supers, all spoke of Miss Stanley and Mr..
Grey as engaged" and no one who had seen
them together could have thought otherwise.
He became her very shadow-her slave.
Whist she went through her performance,
bounding from one end of the stage to the
other, dropping so lightly to the ground.
srrir ging so buoyantly to ner feet again, and
looking go archly shy and bewitching the
while-he used TO stand at the wings, his pale
face uncovered from the Toads mask, his
deep, earnest eyes fixed on Cissie's graceful
figure. as IL his eyes were glued there. When
she sung he hung breathless on her notes
when applause succeeded her efforts his
thin hands always added to 1t.
Once or twice / spoke to him about in
curing such unnecessary fatigue, and asked
him why he did not sit down when he was
able instead of standing about; for could
not help seeing that he was not strong, and it |
made me afraid-I could hardly see why-to |