Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-03-31

VI pSIudpS HOl Aiu ddIuAi dilOH dAu
small attentions with which he would
thankfully have dispensed. Already
he had proved the truth, Of Enrico
remark, THE men will trouble you
with their jealousy. because Of your
success, and the women with their
love, because Of your face@
There were endless little annoy
ances OF this sort, which in good
health and spirits he cCq.d take
lightly, but which began increasingly
TO prey upon his mind, while every
day It seemed to him more difficult to
put up with MerIinos rudeness, and
with the petty insults and hateful in
nuendoes with which Gomez delighted
to try his patience. Sardoni used to
W'z-,ch him curiously at such times; he
never quite got so far as not to show
/ that he felt provoked and this, no
/ doubt, prompted Merlin and Gomez
| TO persevere; for to badger an obtuse
/ man is no sport, but to worry a sensi-
tive man, and see how long he viii
stand it, is interesting to some people.
| Even Sardoni owned to kind Of
| pleasurable feeling in watching these
encounters; more than once he sur
prised look Of vindictive anger on
Carlos face, and always he could see
that his color rose, and that the blood
must be tingling in his veins, for he
was hot-tempered, though he had his
temper well in control. CuriousIy
enough, the only real outburst of pas
sion into which he was betrayed was
due to Sardonl himelf, not to the
cross-grained impresario or the mali
cious Spaniard:
1t arose in this way. Christmas
was over. and Merlino's troupe had
wandered from big town to big town,
sometimes meeting with unusual sue
cess, sometimes performing to wofully
empty houses, or at best to houses
which had been filled witt paper.
Carlo had by this time b 4ome well
accustomed to the life; he was famil.
lar with every face in that little NOV
ing army, with it's curiously assorted
nationalities and its several ranks and
grades, its principals, its chorus-sing-
ers. male and female, its leading in
strumentalists. who had to supple
ment the local orchestra; It's stage
carpenters. it's baggage-men, its dress
| ers Most of them were individually
known to him. many of them were
| his friends, while some had been won
over by Gomez into champions of the
departed Generic.
Toward the middle of January,
Merlino had arranged to take one of
the London opera-nouses, and give a
series of twenty performances, a pro-
| feet bold to rashness at that dreary
time of year The company betook
themselves to various dreary lodging
houses in the neighborhood of the the
after, and Carlo, under the depressing
circumstances, made his first ac-
quaintance with London and his first
| appearance on London stage.
It seemed as if everything eonspired
| together against him at that time; the
weather was trying in the extreme.
there were heavy snow-storms, and
then for days after the great piles Of
| blackened snow would ie on either
side of the streets. The dense. yell
low fogs, and the utter absence of sun,
made him so miserable that life
seemed hardly worth living; while, to
add TO the physical discomforts, his
/ . Ia 4
! ty the climate that he often hardly
| knew how to get through his work
Merlino was in state of nervous ir-
reliability natural enough and almost
excusable to one who was playing so
risky game Mademoiselle de Caisne,
who travelled under Nita's chaperon-
age, had fallen hopelessly in love with
the new baritone, and was a constant
thorn in his side: while Nita herself
was so tryingly foolish and unreason-
able that 1t was all he could do not TO
| lose patience with her. Things We're
| In this state when suddenly a far
worse trouble arose TO .threaten him.
One morning. sorelv chafed by some
dispute which had arisen, he, as usual
took refuge in silence. and leaving
Sardoni to continue the conversation
with Nita and Mademoiselle de
| Caisne. turned to the window and took
up the outside of the Times, CHANGING
with no special purpose down the col
umns In which concerts and matters
connected with the musical world
are advertised He had taken up the
paper casually enough, little thinking
that instead OF a distraction It would
prove an additional care, when sud
/ denly and with a shock indesCribable
| % shock which for the time half
paralyged him. he read the words,
SignCr Generic begs to announce
his arrival in town. All communica-
| lions with regard to concerts or other
engagements 10 be addressed to Antico
] x Co"
/ For some minutes he stood still,
| dimly aearing the voices in the room
behind him -dimly seeing the dreary
street, with its grim, smutty houses
and iron ratings; then. without a
word he folded the paper, left the
room. and with craving 10 get away
alone out II the reach Of all Interrupt
lions, made his way into St, James