Infelice

I will bring you a cup of tea; not the vile lukewarm stuff they give us here, but good genuine tea made ou

nd that is a risk I cannot afford to incur. Please raise both windows

re, and I don't understand at all why two nights in

ead above every other ordeal t

galleries absolutely thundered, and people seemed half wild

reau the steel pins she had taken from her mi

March' are come ind

u speak

hear his slow, heavy step upo

ired man entered, Mrs.

rom home,

om London, and a note fro

en? Did he give you the

he would be at the theatre to-night,

atre last night to witness the brilliant triumph of my countrywomen. Since the palmy days of Rachel I h

let me bathe her face with cologne. What is the ma

ated, and to-night I shall be accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Cuthbert Laurance, son of General René Laurance, whose

of wine. She has no more colour in he

hing. I only wa

er in her hand, and rallied her co

of paper and send it to the dressing-room by your wife. Just now I believe I have no other commissions. If I do not ring my little bell, do not disturb me until five o'clock, then bring me a

the inside, and returned to the easy chair. With a whitening, hardening face

two lines were discernible about the mouth, where habitual compression has set its print; and it would have been difficult to realize that she was twenty-eight, h

able expression of stern hopelessness, of solemn repose, as if she had deliberately shaken hands for ever with all that makes life bright and precious, and were fronting with calm s

softening glow of the To-Come had been precipitated into a dull, pitiless leaden ever present, at which she never raved nor railed, but inflexibly fought on, expecting neither sunshine nor succour, unappalled and patient as some stony figure of Fate, which chiselled w

and among strong positive natures, the deepest feelings find no vent in the effervescence of passionate verbal outbreaks, and outside the charmed precincts of the tragic stage,

s never stirred from the open window, whence she saw-not Parisian monuments of civic glory and martial splendour-only her own past, her haunting skull and cross-bones of the Bygone. Her violet-coloured dressing-gown was unbuttoned at the throat, exp

some vision too torturing even for their brave penetrating gaze, and in her rigid whiteness she se

clasped hands upon her brow, and in a low, str

k womanish nature would betray me, and I should fail, break down utterly und

ead, and regret is decently buried, and the song of hope is hushed for ever, then revenge mounts the chariot and gathers the reins in her hands of steel; and beyond the writhing hearts whose blood dyes her rushing wheels sees only the goal. Some wise anatomists of that frail yet invincible sphinx-woman's nature, babble of one weighty fact, one conquering law,-that only the mother-joy, the mother-love, fully unseals the slumbering sweetness and latent tenderness of her being; for me, maternity opened the sluices of a sea of hate and gall. H

where she had thrown the unread letters. Leaning forward, she crossed her arms upon the marble, and looked down on the contents of the box,-her child's letters,-her own unanswered appea

and offerings, we still worship at the same old shrine, having dusted and garnished and set thereon-maybe the Furies, which bid fai

aris, evil-h

hat before a fortnight passed you would hold 'darling Minnie in your arms once more!' Did you mean it even then? No, no, already the hounds of slander were snuffing in my path, and the toils were spread for my unwary feet. Here, look back at me, my husband, with those fond peerless eyes, as on th

her face in her palms. The pretty guilt clock on the mantle ticked monotonously, and the hum of life, and the busy roll of vehicles in the vast city, was borne in

by no tears of fond womanly regret, and as they fell upon the photograph of Regina, a smile o

ellnigh maddens me with the very echo of a voice whose wily sweetness won my love, to make an hour's pastime, a cheap toy, soon worn out, worthless and trodden under foot after three weeks' sport! Stooping over my baby, when she stretched her little hands and coaxed me to lift her on my lap, I have started back fr

love, and while she studied the fair childish face her own softened, as that of some snow image whose features gradually melt as the sunlight c

that remains for me can be taken in her soft clinging arms? Patience-patience. If it were not for her-for my baby-I might falter even now,-

"never slumbers, nor sleeps," and the tremor of her lips and voice told how passionate was the affecti

ocked the trunk, and as she resumed her seat seemed

she had recently been engaged; the second from a celebrated money

t you can secure it, by adding one hundred pounds to the amount specified by the holder. Should you still desire

The remaining letter was post-marked New York, and addressed, in a bold, round, mercantile hand, but when the envelope had been removed, the formal angular chirography of

em on her palm. Only a few withered leaves and faded petals that had crossed the Atlantic to whisper fragrant messages of lov

last upon them, of the childish fingers that brushed the dew from their purple velvet, of the dainty, almost infantile, lips that had

at might melt the rigid purpose of her soul, and, kissing the flowers reverently, the moth

d in almost all her favourite r?les refused rigid adherence to the written text. The reputation of her beauty and former triumphs, the success achieved on the previous nights, and certain tart criticisms u

silian, and the encounter with Varney, the door of the box opened, and the American minister entered, accompanied by a lady a

the side scene, scribbled on a piece of paper which was handed into the dressing-room: "Se

ful elongation of nature. Her sallow complexion was dark, almost bistre, and the strongly marked irregular features were only redeemed from positive plainness by the large fiery black eyes, whose beauty was somewhat marred by the intrusive boldness of their expression. Bowing to some one opposite, her very full lips parted smilingly over a set of sound strong t

ass. Although only two years her junior, she bore the appearance of much greater seniority, and the proud patrician cast of his handsome face contrasted as vividly with the coarser

in Regina's face, and his glossy hair and beard possessed that purplish black tint so rarely combined wit

n of cultivated elegant tastes, and unmistakably dissipated tendencies, which doubtless would long ago have

ast joke at Count T--

e arm of the ministe

contretemps of the ma

a note between the acts, and sent it to her twisted in that costly antique scarf-ring he is so fond of telling people once belonged to the Duke of Orleans. Before the play ended it was returned, with the n

icicle. She should be called 'Sulitelma,' which I b

voice a trifle." He answered without e

a,' but Cuthbert had an opera engagement

Janet and by Varney. Advancing with queenly grace and dignity to a pile of cushions in the centre of the drawing-ro

across the breast, and revealed the string of pearls-Leicester's last gift-that shone so fair upon his countess's snowy neck. From the mass of hair heaped high upon her head soft tendrils clustered to the edge of her brow, and here and there a long curl strayed over her shoulder, and glittered like burnished gold in the glare of the quivering footlights. The l

tant, and when Varney attempted to place her upon it, she waved him back, and, raising her right hand t

himself conducts me. I am for the present a disguised countess, and will n

plifted hand, mounted into the box, and, sweeping across the minister, dwelt for some second

rough the side scene, and a sudden spark blazed up in the dilating eyes, as a mirror flashes when a candle flame smites its cold dark surface; but not a muscle quivered in the fair proud face, a

and wandering back to the wife, a shadowy smile hovered around the lips that were soon turned, away to answer Varn

bert, did you only notice how she looked right at me? I daresay my solitaires attracted her attention-and no wonder, they are the

eart in its rapid throbbing seemed to pour liquid fire into the bounding arteries. Some vague bewildering reminiscence danced through the clouded chambers of his brain, pointing like a mocking fiend now this way, then in an opposite direction; one instant assuring him

en them, and, leaning forward to catch the measured melody that floated from th

s that polished mirror, so that when he looks into my heart he shall see only his own features reflected there.[*] Can he who to

me's interpolations

no such written sentence as the last, and the rehearsal proved no sure index of all the countess uttered that night, but the play rol

f his princely garb, and explained the significance of the various orders; and in the face upturned to him who filled the chair of state there was a wealt

ion budding in her heart, and exacting pride pleading for recognition and wife

ow seat she sank unintentionally upon her

and jewels with which your generosity adorns her, but which is attached to her place among the matronage, as the avowed wife of England's noblest earl? 'Tis not the dazzlin

ed in a voice whose marvellous modulations in the midst of inte

man alike command? Think you my unshod feet would shrink from glowing ploughshares, if crossing them I found the sacred shelter of my husband's name? Ah, husban

addressed him ere Mr. Laurance recovered himself sufficiently to pe

e walking open-eyed in sleep. Has Madame's b

ding her he looked quite past her into th

her? Is her h

s the first time I have seen her. Of her history I

le salaries to shut their eyes and keep out of the way," added Mrs. Laurance, lengthening the range

husband's ear, grown strange

sea of faces beneath and arou

on the passionate impersonation of one peculiar phrase of feminine suffering and endurance-that of the outraged and neglected wife; and her favourite r?les are 'Katherine' from Henry VIII., 'Hermione,' and 'Medea,' though she is said to excel in 'Deborah.' My brother who saw her last night as 'Medea' pronounced

e, Amy stood, arrayed in the costume which displayed to greatest advantag

owledgment was once more sternly denied, the long-pent agony in the woman's heart burst all barriers, overflowed every dictate of wounded pride, and with an utter abandon of genuine poignant grief, she gave way to a storm that shook her frame with convulsive sobs, and deluged her cheeks with tears. Despite her desperate efforts to maintain her self-control, the sight of her husband's m

enditure of literal heartache that builds up the popularly successful Desdemonas, Camilles, and Marie Stuarts; the scaldi

the tribute, and her silken garments were pelted with bouquets. Among the number that embroidered the stage lay a pyramid of violets edged with rose geranium leaves, and raising it she bent her lovely head to the audie

interview where Varney endeavours to enforce the earl's command that she shall journey to Kenilworth as Varney's wife. The trembling submissiveness of earlier

my own wedded lord, that I should acknowledge him,-him there, that very cloak-brushing, shoe-cleaning fellow,-him

iptoe, and, shaking her hand in prophetic wrath and deathless d

, turn craven, bury honour, and forswear my marriage vows, then, oh then

full gleam of her indignant eyes, but that long look had awakened torture's that would never entirely slumber again, until the solemn hush of the shroud and the cemetery was his portion. No suspicion of the truth crossed hi

had only once looked at the group, and it was not unt

first saw the home whose shelter was denied her, the palatial home where Leicester bowed in homage before Elizabeth. As a neglected, repudiated wife, creeping stealthily to the hearth where it was her right to reign, A

icence-at the altar, and England's Queen could give him no more. He is my husband; I am his wife. I will be bold in c

she allowed her eyes to wander almost dreamily over the surging sea of human heads, and as if she were in truth some hunted, hope

seemed almost thrown to us, as a tribute to our nationality. What a wo

st, and so hollow-eyed, as if utterly worn out i

is decidedly strong and successful. Look, Laurance! were you an artist, would you desire a finer model for an Egeria? If Madame had been re

ilk, and her streaming hair braided it with yellow light

ge, and thither Elizabeth dragged the unhappy wife, into the presence of the e

ending wrath, until at last she was borne away insensible in Hunsdon's strong arms, all followed in qui

, there came a vision in the solemn hours of night, and the form of Amy, wan as so

mains, I gave my hand to this poor Amy Robsart.' You will then have done justice to me, and to your own honour; and should law or power require you to part from me, I will offer no opposition, since

a dim light the treacherous balcony at Cumnor Place was visible. In the hush that pervaded the theatre

fs in the neighbouring courtyard, then Varney's whistle in

r fleecy-white drapery wavered like a drifting cloud, then moved forward upon the balcony; the tra