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diff --git a/old/51923.txt b/old/51923.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a104d9d..0000000 --- a/old/51923.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5235 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Impudent Comedian & Others, by Frank Frankfort Moore - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Impudent Comedian & Others - -Author: Frank Frankfort Moore - -Release Date: May 1, 2016 [EBook #51923] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IMPUDENT COMEDIAN & OTHERS *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by Google Books - - - - - - - - - -THE IMPUDENT COMEDIAN & OTHERS - -By Frank Frankfort Moore - -Herbert S. Stone & Co - -1896 - - - - -THE IMPUDENT COMEDIAN - -"Nelly--Nelly--Nell! Now, where's the wench?" cried Mrs. Gwyn, before -she had more than passed the threshold of her daughter's house in St. -James's Park--the house with the terrace garden, where, as the sedate -Evelyn records, the charming Nelly had stood exchanging some very lively -phrases with her royal lover on the green walk below, giving the grave -gentleman cause to grieve greatly. But, alas! the record of his sorrow -has only made his untold readers mad that they had not been present to -grieve, also, over that entrancing tableau. "Nelly--Nell! Where's -your mistress, sirrah?" continued the somewhat portly and undoubtedly -overdressed mother of the "impudent comedian," referred to by Evelyn, -turning to a man-servant who wore the scarlet livery of the king. - -"Where should she be, madam, at this hour, unless in the hands of her -tirewomen? It is but an hour past noon." - -"You lie, knave! She is at hand," cried the lady, as the musical lilt of -a song sounded on the landing above the dozen shallow oak stairs leading -out of the square hall, and a couple of fat spaniels, at the sound, -lazily left their place on a cushion, and waddled towards the stairs to -meet and greet their mistress. - -She appeared in the lobby, and stood for a moment or two looking out of -a window that commanded a fine view of the trees outside--they were in -blossom right down to the wall. She made a lovely picture, with one hand -shading her eyes from the sunlight that entered through the small square -panes, singing all the time in pure lightness of heart. She wore her -brown hair in the short ringlets of the period, and they danced on each -side of her face as if they were knowing little sprites for whose ears -her singing was meant. - -"Wench!" shouted her mother from below. The sprites that danced to the -music of the mother's voice were of a heavier order altogether. - -"What, mother? I scarce knew that you were journeying hither to-day," -cried Nelly, coming down the stairs. "'T is an honour, and a surprise -as well; and, i' faith, now that I come to think on't, the surprise is -a deal greater than the honour. If you say you have n't come hither for -more money, my surprise will be unbounded." - -It was nothing to Nelly that she spoke loud enough to be heard by the -footmen in the hall, as well as by the servants in the kitchen. She knew -that they knew all about her, and all about her mother as well. Perhaps -some of them had bought oranges from her or her mother in the old days -at Drury Lane, before she had become distinguished as an actress, and in -other ways. - -"I 'm not come for money, though a trifle would be welcome," said the -mother, when Nelly had shown her the way into one of the rooms opening -off a corridor at one side of the hall--a large apartment, furnished -with ludicrous incongruity. A lovely settee, made by the greatest artist -in France, and upholstered in bright tapestry, was flanked by a couple -of hideous chairs made by the stage carpenter of Drury Lane, and by him -presented to Nelly. A pair of Sevres vases, which had for some years -been in St. James's Palace stood on a side-board among some rubbish of -porcelain that Nelly had picked up in the purlieus of Westminster. - -The mother was about to seat herself heavily on the gilded settee, when -Nelly gave a little scream, startling the elder lady so that she, too, -screamed--a little hoarsely--in sympathy. - -"What's the matter, girl--what's the matter?" she cried. - -"Nothing is the matter, so far, mother, but a mighty deal would have -been the matter, if you had seated yourself other where than in that -chair.'Snails, madam, who are you that you should plump your person down -on a seat that was made for a legitimate monarch?" - -"I'm a legitimate wife, hear you that, you perky wench?" cried the -mother, craning her neck forward after the most approved fashion of -pending belligerents at Lewkinor Street, Drury Lane. - -"The greater reason you should avoid that settee, dear mother; it has -never been other than the chattel of a prince," laughed Nelly. "And now, -prithee, why the honour of this visit, while the month is not yet near -its close?" - -"I have met with an old friend of yours, this day, Nell," said the -mother, "and he is coming hither,--'t is that hath brought me." - -"An old friend! I' faith, good mother, 't is the young friends are more -to my taste. The savour of Lewkinor Street doth not smell sweet, and it -clings most foully to all our old friends." - -"Oh, ay, but you once was n't so dainty a madam!" - -"'T were vain to deny it, mother, since it can be urged against me that -I became your daughter. No, no, good mother, friend me no old friends--I -like them new--the newer the better--plenty of gilding--none of it -rubbed off--gingerbread and courtiers--plenty of gilding, and plenty -of spice beneath. But the old life in Lewkinor Street--in the -coal-yard--ah!'t was like to sour oranges, mother, thick skin above, and -sourness under. 'Snails! it doth set my teeth on edge to think of it." - -"Oh, ay; but now and again we lighted upon a Levant orange in the midst -of a basketful--a sweet one to suck, and one to leave a sweet taste -behind it." - -"The best were mightily improved by the addition of a lump of sugar. -But what hath all this vegetable philosophy to do with your visit to -me to-day? If you mean to stay, I'll send out for a couple of stone of -sugar without delay!" - -"Philosophy, Madame Impudence! You accuse your mother of philosophy, -when everyone knows that your own language was--" - -"Worthy of a lady of quality, mother. It seemeth that you are anxious to -hear whether or not I retain anything of my old skill in that direction, -and by my faith, dear mother, you shall learn more than will satisfy -your curiosity, if you beat about the bush much longer. Whom say you -that you met to-day?" - -"What should you say if I told you that his name was Dick Harraden?" - -"What, Dick! Dick!--Dick Harraden!" - -Nell had sprung to her feet, and had grasped her mother by the shoulder, -eagerly peering into her face. After a moment of silence following her -exclamation, she gave her mother a little push, in the act of taking -her hand off her shoulder, and threw herself back in her own chair -again with a laugh--a laugh that surrounded a sigh, as a bright nimbus -surrounds the sad face of a saint in a picture. - -"What should I say, do you ask me?" she cried. "Well, I should say -that you were a liar, good mother." Nell was never particular in her -language. As an exponent of the reaction against the Puritanism of the -previous generation, she was admitted by very competent judges to have -scarcely an equal. - -"I'm no liar," said the mother. "'T was Dick himself I met, face to -face." - -"It puzzles me to see wherein lies your hope of getting money from me by -telling me such a tale," said Nell. - -"I want not your money--at least not till the end of the month, or -thereabouts. I tell you, I saw Dick within the hour." - -"'T was his ghost. You know that when he threw away his link he took to -the sea, and was drowned in a storm off the Grand Canary. What did the -seafaring man tell us when I asked him if he had seen Dick?" - -"A maudlin knave, who offered you a guinea for a kiss at the pit door -of Drury Lane, and then bought a basket of oranges and gave them away -singly to all comers." - -"But he said he had sailed in the same ship as Dick, and that it had -gone down with all aboard save only himself." - -"Oh, ay; and he wept plentifully when he saw how you wept--ay, and -offered to be your sweetheart in the stead of poor Dick, the knave! For -I saw Dick with these eyes, within the hour." - -"Oh, mother--and you told him--no, you durs n't tell him--" - -"He had just this morning come to London from the Indies, and it was -luck--ill-luck, maybe--that made him run against me. He plied me with -question after question--all about Nell--his Nell, he called you, if you -please." - -"His Nell--ah, mother! his Nell! Well, you told him--" - -"I told him that you would never more need his aid to buy foot-gear. -Lord! Nell, do you mind how he bought you the worsted stockings when you -were nigh mad with the chilblains?" - -"And you told him... For God's sake, say what you told him!" - -"I did n't mention the king's name--no, I'm loyal to his Majesty, God -save him! I only told him that you had given up selling oranges in -the pit of Drury Lane, and had taken to the less reputable part of the -house, to wit, the stage." - -"Poor Dick! he did n't like to hear that. Oh, if he had stayed at home -and had carried his link as before, all would have been well!" - -"What is the wench talking about? Well--all would have been well? And -is not all well, you jade? 'T were rank treason to say else. Is n't this -room with its gilded looking-glasses and painted vases pretty well for -one who had been an orange girl? The king is a gentleman, and a merry -gentleman, too. Well, indeed!" - -"But Dick!--what more did you say to him, mother?" - -"I asked him after himself, to be sure. I' faith the lad has prospered, -Nell--not as you have prospered, to be sure--" - -"Nay, not as I have prospered." - -"Of course not; but still somewhat. He will tell you all, himself." - -"What? You told him where I dwelt?" - -"'I meant it not, Nelly; but he had it from me before I was aware. But -he knows nothing. I tell you he only came to London from Bristol port -in the morning. He will have no time to hear of the king and the king's -fancies before he sees you." - -"He is coming hither, then? No, he must not come! Oh, he shall not come! -Mother, you have played me false!" - -"I? Oh, the wench is mad! False? What could I say, girl, when he pressed -me?" - -"You could have said that I was dead--that would have been the truth. -The girl he knew is dead. He must not come to this house." - -"Then give your lacqueys orders not to admit him, and all will be well. -But I thought that you would e'en see the lad, Nell, now that he has -prospered. If he had n't prospered it would be different." - -"Only an orange-seller, and yet with the precepts of a lady of quality! -I'll not see him. Did he say he'd come soon?" - -"Within an hour, he said." Instinctively, Nell looked at her reflection -in a mirror. - -"I'll not see him," she repeated. "That gown will do well enough for one -just returned from the Indies," said the mother, with a leer. - -"Oh, go away, go away," cried her daughter. "You have done enough -mischief for one morning. Why could not you have let things be? Why -should you put this man on my track?" - -"'T is a fool that the wench is, for all her smartness," said the -mother. "She was picked out of the gutter and set down among the noblest -in the land, and all that held on to her gown were landed in pleasant -places; and yet she talks like a kitchen jade with no sense. If you will -not see the lad, hussy, lock your door and close your shutters, after -giving orders to your lacqueys to admit him not. If needful, the king -can be petitioned to send a guard to line the Park with their pikes to -keep out poor Dick, as though he was the devil, and the Park the Garden -of Eden." - -"Oh, go away--go away!" - -"Oh, yes; I 'll go--and you 'll see him, too--no fear about that. A -girl, however well provided for--and you're well provided for--would n't -refuse to see an old sweetheart, if he was the old serpent himself; -nay, she'd see him on that account alone. And so good day to you, good -Mistress Eve." - -She made a mock courtesy, the irony of which was quite as broad as that -of her speech, and marched out of the room, holding her narrow skirts -sufficiently high to display a shocking pair of flat-footed boots -beneath. - -Her daughter watched her departure, and only when she had disappeared -burst into a laugh. In a moment she was grave once again. She remained -seated without changing her attitude or expression for a long time. At -last she sprang to her feet, saying out loud, as though some one were -present to hear her: - -"What a fool thou art, friend Nell, to become glum over a boy -sweetheart--and a link boy, of all boys. Were I to tell Mr. Dryden of my -fancy, he would write one of his verses about it, making out that poor -Dick was the little god Cupid in disguise, and that his link was the -torch of love. But I'll not see him.'T were best not. He'll hear all, -soon enough, and loathe me as at times I loathe myself--no, no; not so -much as that, not so much as that: Dick had always a kind heart. No; -I'll not see him." She went resolutely to the bell-pull, but when there, -stood irresolute with the ornamental ring of brass in her hand, for some -moments before pulling it. She gave it a sudden jerk, and when it was -responded to by a lacquey, she said: - -"Should a man call asking to see me within the next hour, he is to be -told--with civility, mind you: he is a gentleman--that--that I am in -this room, and that I will see him for five minutes--only five minutes, -mind you, sirrah." - -"And the man--the gentleman--is to be admitted, madam?" - -"Certainly--for five minutes." - -"Your ladyship will regulate the time?" - -"Go away, you numbskull! How could I regulate the time? I'm no -astronomer." - -"Madam, I meant but to inquire if you are to be interrupted at the end -of five minutes." - -"I gave you no such instruction, sirrah. It is enough for you to carry -out the instruction I gave you. Carry it out, and yourself in the -bargain." - -The man bowed and withdrew. He was familiar with the colloquial style of -his mistress and her moods. - -When the man had gone Nelly laughed again, but suddenly became graver -even than she had yet been. - -"What have I done?" she cried. "Oh, there never was so great a fool as -me! No, no; I'll not see him! I have as kind a heart as Dick, and I'll -prove it by not seeing him." - -And yet, when she had her hand on the lock of the door, she stood -irresolute once again for some moments. Then she went out with a firm -step, her intention being to countermand in the hall the instructions -she had given to the servant in the parlour; but in the hall she found -herself face to face with her old friend, Sir Charles Sedley. He had -brought her a bunch of violets. - -"The satyr offers flowers to Aurora," said the courtier to the -courtesan, bowing as gracefully as a touch of rheumatism permitted. - -"And Aurora was so fond of flowers that she accepted them, even from the -most satiric of satyrs," said Nell, sinking into a courtesy. - -"I plucked these flowers for the fairest flower that--" - -"Ah, that is one of Mr. Dryden's images in the reverse," laughed Nell. -"What was the name of t' other young thing?--Proserpine, that's it--who -was plucking flowers, and was herself plucked. 'Snails! that's not the -word--she was n't a fowl." - -"'Fore Gad, Nell, I never heard that story; it sounds scandalous, so -tell it us," said Sir Charles. "What was the name of the wench, did you -say?" - -"Her name was Nell Gwyn, and she was gathering oranges to sell in -the pit of Drury Lane, when, some say Satan, and some say Sedley--the -incongruity between the two accounts is too trifling to call for -notice--captivated her, and she had nothing more to do with oranges or -orange blossoms." - -"And her life was all the merrier, as I doubt not Madame Proserpine's -was when she left the vale of Enna for--well, the Pit--not at Drury -Lane." - -"That were a darker depth still. You 've heard the story, then. Mr. -Dryden says the moral of it is that the devil has got all the pretty -wenches for himself." - -"Not so; he left a few for the king." - -"Nay, the two are partners in the game; but the King, like t' other -monarch, is not so black as he is painted." - -"Nor so absolutely white as to be tasteless as the white of an egg, -Nell." - -"His Majesty is certainly not tasteless." - -"On the contrary, he is in love with you still, Nell." - -They were standing apart from the group of servants in the hall. Nell -Gwyn had pretended that she was about to ascend the stairs, but loitered -on the second step, with her right elbow resting on the oak banister, -while she smelt at the violets with her head poised daintily, looking -with eyes full of mischief and mirth at the courtier standing on the -mat, the feathers of his broad-leafed hat sweeping the ground, as he -swung it in making his bows. - -Suddenly Nell straightened herself as she looked down the hall toward -the door; she started and dropped her violets. All the mischief and -mirth fled from her eyes as a man was admitted, with some measure of -protestation, by the porter. He was a young man with a very brown face, -and he carried no sword, only the hanger of a sailor; his dress was of -the plainest--neither silk nor lace entered into its manufacture. - -Before Sir Charles had time to turn to satisfy himself as to the -identity of the man at whom Nell was gazing so eagerly, she had run down -the hall, and seized the newcomer by both hands, crying: - -"Dick--Dick--It is you, yourself, Dick, and no ghost!" - -"No ghost, I dare swear, Nell," cried the man, in a tone that made the -candles in the chandelier quiver, and Sir Charles Sedley to be all but -swept off his feet. "No ghost, but--O Lord, how you've grown, Nell! Why, -when I burnt my last link seeing you home, you was only so high!" He put -his hand within a foot of the floor. - -"And you, too, Dick! Why, you're a man now--you'll grow no more, Dick," -cried Nell, still standing in front of him, 'with his hands fast clasped -in her own. Suddenly recollecting the servants who were around, she -dropped his hands, saying: "Come along within, Dick, and tell me all -your adventures since last we were together." - -"Lord! Adventures! You do n't know what you 've set yourself down for, -Nell. If I was to tell you all, I should be in your company for at least -a week." - -[Illustration: 0042] - -She led him past Sir Charles Sedley, without so much as glancing at the -courtier, and the newcomer had no eyes for anyone save Nell. A servant -threw open the door of the room where she had been with her mother, and -the two entered. - -Sir Charles took snuff elaborately, after he had replaced his hat on his -head. - -"If his Majesty should arrive, let him know that I am in the long -parlour," he said to a servant, as he walked toward a door on the left. - -He paused for a space with his hand on the handle of the door, for there -came from the room into which Nell Gwyn and Dick Harraden had gone a -loud peal of laugh ter--not a solo, but a duet. - -He turned the handle. - -So soon as he had disappeared, there came another ripple of laughter -from the other room, and the lacqueys lounging in the hall laughed, too. -Within the room, Nell was seated on the settee and Dick Harraden by her -side. She had just reminded him of the gift of the worsted stockings -which he had made to her, when he was a link-boy, and she an orange-girl -in Drury Lane. They had both laughed when she had pushed out a little -dainty shoe from beneath her gown, displaying at the same time a -tolerably liberal amount of silk stocking, as she said: - -"Ah, Dick, it 's not in worsted my toes are clad now. I have outgrown -your stockings." - -"Not you, Nell!" he cried. "By the Lord Harry! your feet have got -smaller instead of larger during these years--I swear to you that is -so." - -"Ah, the chilblains do make a difference, Dick," said she, "and you -never saw my feet unless they were covered with chilblains. Lord! how -you cried when you saw my feet well covered for the first time." - -"Not I---I didn't cry. What was there to cry about, Nell?" he said. - -She felt very much inclined to ask him the same question at that -moment, for his face was averted from her, and he had uttered his words -spasmodically. - -"Poor Dick! You wept because you had eaten nothing for three days in -order to save enough to buy my stockings," she said. - -"How know you that?" he cried, turning to her suddenly. - -"I knew it not at the time," she replied, "but I have thought over it -since." - -"Think no more of it, Nell. O Lord! to think that I should live to see -Nell again! No--no; I'll not believe it. That fine lady that I see in -the big glass yonder cannot be Nell Gwyn!" - -"Oh, Dick, would any one but Nell Gwyn remember about Nell Gwyn's -chilblains?" - -"Hearsay, mere hearsay, my fine madam!" - -"By what means shall I convince you that I'm the Nell you knew? Let me -see--ah, I know. Dick, I 'll swear for you; you know well that there was -not one could match me in swearing. Let me but begin." - -"O Lord! not for the world. You always knew when to begin, Nell, but you -ne'er knew when to stop. And how doth it come that you have n't forgot -the brimstone of the Lane, Nelly, though you have become so mighty fine -a lady?" - -"'Snails, Dick, the best way to remember a language is to keep -constantly talking it!" - -"But in silks and satins?" - -"Oh, I soon found that I only needed to double the intensity of my -language in the Lane in order to talk the mother tongue of fashion." - -"If swearing make the fine lady, you'll be the leader of the town, Nell, -I'll warrant. But do n't say that you doubled your language--that would -be impossible." - -"Oh, would it, indeed?" - -"Not so? Then for God's sake do n't give me a sample of what you reached -in that way, for I 've only lived among the pirates and buccaneers of -the Indies since." - -"Then I'll e'en spare thee, Dick. But take warning: do n't provoke me. -You would n't provoke a pirate whose guns you knew to be double-shotted. -Do n't say that I'm not Nell Gwyn for all my silks and lace. Why, man, -doth oatmeal porridge cease to be porridge because it's served in a -silver platter? Did your salt pork turn to venison when you ate it off -the gold plate that you stole from the chapels?" - -"Lord, Nell, I was n't a pirate." - -"What! Did n't you say just now that you had been among pirates and -buccaneers in the Indies?" - -"I was among them, but not of them." - -"You mean to say that you were neither a pirate nor a buccaneer?" - -"Neither!" - -"Then all I can say is that I'm mightily ashamed of you, Dick. I counted -on your being at least a pirate. Don't say that you became a merchant; I -never could abide dishonesty, Dick." - -"Well, no; I never became just a merchant, Nell--at least, not the sort -of merchant that merchants would call a merchant." - -"Oh, then, there's some hope for you yet, Dick. We may be friends -still." - -"Friends? Well, I should say so! What did I work for, do you think, -through all these years? What did I lay up a store of guineas -for--guineas and Spanish doubloons and pieces of eight for----" - -"And you have made a fortune, Dick? Think of that! Ah, I fear that you -must have been a regular merchant after all; only regular merchants make -fortunes in these days." - -"Ay, but some irregular ones do pretty fairly for themselves." - -"And you were somewhat irregular, I dare swear?" - -"Well, I wasn't regularly irregular, dear, only by fits and starts. Ah, -what I said to myself was: 'I've put the stockings on Nell, but I've -to get the shoes for her yet.' That's what gave me the strength of ten -men--working for those shoes, Nell." - -"Poor Dick! and now when you come home, you find that I am already -provided for." - -Again she showed him the dainty tips of her shoes. - -"Those are fair weather shoes, Nell," he cried. - -"Ay, that they are, Dick," she assented, with a note of sadness in her -voice. - -"But what I would offer you would stand the stress of all weather--fair -or foul, Nell." - -"I believe you, Dick, with all my heart. I know what you had to offer -me; but it 's too late now, too late, Dick." - -"Too late? What do you mean, girl?" - -The look that came into his face frightened her. She threw herself back -on the settee and laughed loudly for a minute or two. - -"That's what I mean," she cried, tilting up her toes until they were -on a level with his knees. "What else could I mean than that I'm already -sufficiently shod? Even Nell Gwyn can't wear more than one pair of shoes -at a time, Dick. It's rather a pity, but 't is an ill that must be -borne. Now tell us all about yourself, Dick. Tell us how you fought with -pirates and buccaneers--never mind telling how you made a fortune in -pieces of eight: there's no romance about making a fortune--tell us -about the pirates, and above all, tell us what the Spanish Main is." - -"The Spanish Main--why, it's the Spanish Main, to be sure--south of the -Indies--a good place for trade, and a good place for pirates. But you, -Nell; I wonder if you meant anything by saying that I had come back too -late? I thought, you know, when I met your mother----" - -"Oh, I want to hear about the fighting--the buccaneers! I do n't want to -hear about my mother; I hear enough about her. You fought the pirates? -Well, next to being a pirate yourself, that's the best thing." - -"Well, if you must know, I got about me a few score of lads--most -of them were stout Irish lads who were sold to the plantations by -Cromwell." - -"The monster!" - -"Ay, we made up a brave crew, I can tell you. Our plan was to do no -pirating on our own behalf, but only to attack the pirates when they had -a deck-load of spoil. Taking from thieves is n't stealing, is it, Nell?" - -"No; that's business." - -"A bit irregular, it may be, as I said just now; but bless you, Nelly, -it was like sermon-preaching compared to some sorts of business that -thrive mightily at the Indies. Anyhow, here I am to-day, sound and -hearty, Nell, with a pretty nice fortune made already, and more to -come--here I am, ready and willing to buy you the best pair of shoes in -London town, and every other article of attire you may need for the next -dozen--ay, the next fifty years." - -"Dick--Dick!" - -"Is n't it true that you were always my sweetheart, Nell? Didn't you -say that you would never marry another? Well, you've kept your word so -far--your mother told me that." - -"Ah, that's the worst of it." - -"The worst of it! That's the best of it, Nelly; for though a fine lady, -living in a mansion like this--why, it might be a palace--the King -himself might come here-----" - -"The King--you've heard that--that the King?" - -She grasped him fiercely by the sleeve, and was eagerly peering into his -face. - -He burst out laughing, but suddenly checked himself. - -"The King--the King--what was there for me to hear?" he asked in a low -voice. "I only arrived from Bristol port in the morning. How could I -hear anything?" - -"I do n't want to hear anything, except to hear you say that you have -n't broken your promise--that you have n't married any one else." - -"Oh, go away, Dick--go away!" she cried, burying her face on the arm of -the settee. - -He got upon his feet slowly and painfully, and stood over her. - -"Why should I go away?" he asked, in the same grave voice. "If I love -you--and you know I do--and if you love me--and I believe that you -do--it is not for me to go away. Ah, is it possible that you have given -your promise to marry some one else? Do n't weep, Nell; that's it, I -see, and it can be made all right. Is that it, dear?" - -"No, no. Oh, go away--go away, and never return to make me feel how -miserable I am!" - -"I'll not go away. There's some mystery about you and this house, and -I'll not go before I fathom it." - -She looked up and saw him standing there with his arms folded. - -She leaped up so quickly that she almost seemed to spring into his arms. -He thought so, at any rate, and was about to clasp her when she caught -both of his hands in her own, gazing tearfully--eagerly--wistfully, into -his face. - -"Dick--dear Dick," she said; "if you love me still--and I know you -do--you will leave me now. Oh, you should never have come here--I -did not mean you to come; but if you love me, Dick, you will leave me -now--leave me and go into the nearest coffee-house, and ask of the first -man you see there who is Nell Gwyn? What is Nell Gwyn? If you return -to me after that, then--then, Dick, I swear to you that I'll marry -you; there will be none to stay us then, none to come between--the King -himself shall not come between us." - -He gripped her hands fiercely, his face close down to hers. - -"By God, I 'll do it!" he said, through his set teeth. "I'll do it. You -have put it upon me. I know that I shall hear nothing but what is -good of you, and I'll return to claim you, as sure as there's a sun in -heaven." - -He dropped her hands, snatched up his hat, and walked firmly to the -door. When there, he turned slowly and looked back at her. She was -standing pale and lovely where he had left her. Her eyes were upon his -face. - -He flung himself through the door, and she fell on her knees beside the -settee, burying her face in one of its cushions. - -For some minutes, nothing was heard in the room but the sound of her -sobs; but then the silence was broken by a shout outside--a shout and -the noise of a scuffle. Cries of "Hold him back! Hold him back!" came -from the servants, and mixed with some full-bodied imprecations in other -voices. Nell started to her feet, as the door of the room was all but -crashed in, and she was standing with a startled look on her face, as -the door was flung wide open, and Dick Harraden hurled a limp antagonist -into the room. - -"He shall eat his words--every foul word he uttered he shall swallow in -the presence of Nell herself," cried Dick, and then Nell recognised Sir -Charles Sedley as the man who was standing panting, with a broken sword -in his hand, by her side, facing Dick. - -"For God's sake, Dick!--Sir Charles--what has happened?" - -The courtier was too breathless to speak--he signified so much very -pleasingly to Nell. - -"The cowardly knave!" panted Dick. "But I swore that I'd make him eat -his words, and by the Lord Harry, I'll keep my oath!" - -"Sir Charles, pray--oh, Dick!" - -"Dick me no Dicks, Nell, until this popinjay has gone down on his knees -before you and asked your pardon for his foul words," cried Dick. "Down -you go, my gentleman, were you fifty times Sir Charles." - -"For heaven's sake, Nell, keep that fire-eater at a distance," gasped -Sir Charles; "he's fit for Bedlam!" - -"Stand where you be, Dick," said Nell. "What said Sir Charles Sedley to -give you offence?" - -"He said that you--no, I 'll hang in chains in Execution Dock before I -repeat the lie--but he'll take it back, every word, if I have to wring -his neck!" - -Dick was with difficulty kept at a distance. - -"Did he say aught about the King and me?" asked Nell, in a low voice. - -"It was, I swear, a most unhappy _contretems_, Nell," said Sir Charles, -smiling in a somewhat constrained way. "How could I know that there was -one man in England who did n't know how splendid, yet how natural, a -conquest the charms of Mistress Eleanor Gwyn have achieved?" - -"Then you only spoke the truth, Sir Charles," said Nell. "God above us!" - -Dick staggered back, and grasped the frame of a chair to support -himself. There was a long silence. - -He took a faltering step or two towards where she stood in the middle of -the room. - -"I see it all now," he said, in a low voice. "I see it all. This -house--the lacqueys in scarlet--the King's servants--they are the King's -servants, and you--you, Nell, are the King's----Oh, God! let me die--let -me die! This is what I came home for! You told me to go to the first -coffee-house; I did n't need to go so far. Oh, Nelly, if I had come home -to stand beside the green hillock of your grave I could have borne it, -but this--this!" - -He dropped into a chair and covered his face with his hands. His sobbing -was the only sound in the room. - -After a long pause he got slowly upon his feet. - -"I'm going away," he said. "My heart is broken, Nell--my heart is -broken. Good-bye, Nell." - -"Good-bye, Dick." - -She had not moved from the middle of the room. She did not hold out a -hand to him. He walked slowly to the door. Then he turned round. - -"I humbly ask your pardon, sir," he said to Sir Charles. - -"Sir," said the courtier, "I honour you more than any living man." - -"Nell--Nell--come to me--come away with me--come to my arms, Nell," -cried the man, holding out his hands to her from where she stood. - -Sir Charles watched her face. He saw it light up for a moment. Her hands -moved; she was going to him. - -No, she only looked at the man who loved her and was ready to offer her -everything, and said: - -"Dick, I have a boy in a cradle upstairs." - -There was another long pause before Dick whispered the words: "God bless -thee, Nell," Then the door was flung wide in his face by a lacquey, who -bowed to the ground as he ushered in a rather plainfaced man wearing a -diamond star and a broad blue sash, as well as a diamond garter. - -Nell sank in a courtesy, and Sir Charles Sedley made an obeisance. Dick -remained unmoved. - -"Ha! what have we here?" said the stranger. "'Odsfish! a pretty family -picture! Who may you be, good sir?" he asked of Dick. - -"Who may _you_ be?" asked Dick. - -"Well, who I may be in a year or two, the Lord and Nelly only knows--she -says a merry pauper. But who I am is easier said; I happen just now to -be the King." - -Dick stood unmoved. - -"Then I could tell you _what_ you are, sir,' said Dick. - -"Not half as well as I could tell you, my friend," said the King. - -"I wonder if your Majesty ever hears the truth?" said Dick. - -"Seldom; any time I do, it comes from the lips of Nelly, yonder," -replied the King. "And by my soul, sir, I would rather hear the truth -from Nelly, than a lie from the most honourable of my subjects." - -"Profligate!" cried Dick. - -"I answer to that name, sir; what then?" said the King. - -"What then? God only can reply to your 'what then?' The answer rests -with Him. He will not forget to answer you when His time comes." - -"Even so," said the King, in a low tone, bending his head. - -Sir Charles had moved round the settee, and had opened the door. He -touched Dick on the elbow. Dick started for a moment and then stalked -through the door. Sir Charles went out with his face turned towards the -King. - -"A straightforward fellow, but as conceited as a Puritan, Nell," cried -the King, with a laugh. "What brought him here?" But Nell had sunk once -more on her knees beside the settee, and her face was, as before, buried -in the cushion. - -"Ha, what's this, Nelly? What's amiss?" said the King, bending over her. - -"Oh, go away--go away! I never want to see you again. You heard the -word, profligate, profligate!" - -"I'll go away, Nell, so soon as I pass to you the two papers which I -hold in my hand." - -"I want no papers; I want to be alone." - -"Come, dear child; see if you will like your new plaything." - -He pushed before her one of the two papers which he held. - -She glanced at it without rising, and without taking it from him. -Suddenly she put out a hand to it. - -"What?" she cried. She was now on her feet. "You have done it for -me--all for me? The hospital to be built at Chelsea! Oh, my liege!" - -"Now the other paper," said the King. - -She took it from him. - -"Ah, Royal Letters Patent--our boy--our Charlie--Duke of St. Albans! Oh, -my liege--my King--my love forever!" She sank on her knees, and, -catching his hand, covered it with kisses--with kisses and tears. - - - - -KITTY CLIVE, ACTRESS - -At the King's Head Inn at Thatcham on the Bath Road a post chaise drew -up, but with no great flourish, for the postilion knew that his only -passenger was a lady, and he had no intention of pulling his horses on -their haunches merely for the sake of impressing a lady. In his youth he -had made many flourishes of such a type, but had failed to win an extra -crown from a traveller of this sex. - -The groom, who advanced with some degree of briskness from the -stable-yard, became more languid in his movements when he perceived that -only a lady was descending from the chaise. He knew that briskness on -the part of a groom never caused a coin to spring from the purse of a -lady. The landlord, however, taking a more hopeful view of the harvest -prospects of the solitary lady as a guest--he had lived in London, -and had heard of assignations in which the (temporarily) solitary lady -became a source of profit to the inn-keeper--made a pretence of bustling -out to assist the occupant of the chaise to alight, bowing elaborately -when he perceived that the lining of her travel-ling-cloak was of -quilted silk, and once again as she tripped very daintily over the -cobble-stones in front of the King's Head, and smiled very bewitchingly -within the satin frame of her hood. The landlord had a notion that -he had seen her face and her smile before. He carried with him the -recollection of a good many faces and smiles within the frame-work of -quilted satin hoods. - -"Madam, you honour my poor house," he said in his best London manner as -the lady passed through the porch. "'T is rarely that a person of your -ladyship's quality--" - -"Spare us good lord--good landlord," cried the lady in an accent that -had a certain amount of Hibernian persuasiveness about it. "Spare -us your remarks about our quality.'T is two horses and not four that -brought me hither. It's of your quality, sir, that I'd fain have a -taste. If I do n't have breakfast within an hour, I honestly believe -that my death will be at your door, and where will your compliments be -then, my good man?" - -"Your ladyship is pleased to be facetious," said the landlord, throwing -open the door of the public room with as great a flourish as if he were -giving admittance to sixty-foot _salle_, instead of a twenty-foot inn -parlour. He looked closely at his visitor as she passed through: her -voice sounded strangely familiar to him. "'T is a poor room for one, -who, I doubt not, is no stranger to the noblest mansions," he added. - -"There's no one better accustomed to the noblest mansions than myself," -said the lady, going to the looking-glass that occupied a place in a -panel between the windows, throwing back her hood, and then arranging -her hair. - -"Yes, faith, many's the palace I've lived in--for the space of half an -hour at a time--but I make no objections to the room I 'm in just now. -See the pictures!" She raised her hands in an attitude of surprise and -admiration, so well simulated as to deceive the landlord, though he had -lived in London. - -"Pictures! Oh, the grandeur of it all! And what about breakfast? Give us -your notions of the proper decorations of a breakfast-table, good sir. -It's a picture of rashers that I've got my heart set on." - -"The best breakfast that my poor house can afford your ladyship shall be -prepared." - -"And soon, good Mr. Landlord, I implore of you, sir. Breakfast for two." - -"For two, madam!" The landlord began to feel that his experience of -assignations was about to be augmented. - -"For two, sir--I look for my brother to arrive by the coach from -Levizes. If he should enquire for me at the bar, just show him in here." - -"Your commands shall be obeyed, madam. Will he enquire for your ladyship -by name?" - -"By name? Why, how else would you have him enquire, my good man? Do you -fancy that he carries a Bow Street runner's description of so humble a -person as myself?" - -"Nay, madam; but you see your name is just what I have n't yet had the -honour of learning." - -The lady burst out laughing. - -"Faith, good sir, my name is a somewhat important detail in the -transaction I speak of. The gentleman will ask for Mistress Clive." - -"Ah," cried the landlord, "I could have sworn that I knew the face and -the voice, but I failed to think of them in connection with our Kitty." -He checked himself in his cackle of laughter, and bowed in his best -style. "Madam, I implore your pardon, but--oh lord! how I've laughed in -the old days at Kitty's pranks!--nay, madam, forgive my familiarity. I -am your servant. Oh, lord! to think that it's Kitty Clive herself--our -Kitty--madam--" - -Only when he had fled to the door and had opened it did the man -recover himself sufficiently to be able to repeat his bow. After he had -disappeared at the other side of the door, the lady heard his outburst -of laughter once again. It grew fainter as he hurried off to (she hoped) -the kitchen. - -Kitty Clive laughed, also, as she seated herself carefully on the -settle, for it was a piece of furniture whose cushions required to be -tenderly treated. - -"And this is real fame," she murmured. "To be 'our Kitty' to a hundred -thousand men and women is my ambition--a laudable one, too, I swear--one -worth struggling for--worth fighting Davy for, and Davy Garrick takes -a deal of fighting. He has got more of it from Kitty Clive than he -bargained for." - -The recollection of her constant bickerings with David Garrick seemed to -offer her a good deal of satisfaction. It is doubtful if David Garrick's -recollection of the same incidents would have been equally pleasing -to him; for Kitty Clive was very annoying, especially when she got -the better of her manager in any matter upon which he tried to get the -better of her, and those occasions were frequent. - -She remained on the settle smiling now and again, and giving a laugh at -intervals as she thought of how she had worsted David, as his namesake -had worsted the champion of Gath. But soon she became grave. - -"I should be ashamed of myself," she muttered. "David Garrick is the -only one of the whole crew at the Lane that never varies. He 's the only -one that 's always at his best. God forgive me for the way. I sometimes -try to spoil his scenes, for he 's worth Quinn, Macklin, and Barry bound -up in one; only why does he keep his purse-strings so close? Ah, if he -only had a pint of Irish blood in his veins." - -She yawned, for her contests with Garrick did not cause her any great -concern; and then she tucked up her feet upon the settle and hummed an -air from the _Beggars' Opera_. Hearing the sound of wheels she paused, -listening. - -"Sure it can't be the coach with my brother yet awhile," said she. "Ah, -no, 't is the sound of a chaise, not a coach." She resumed her lilting -of the air; but once again it was interrupted. Just outside the door -of the room there was the sound of an altercation. The voice of the -landlord was heard, apparently remonstrating with a very self-assertive -person. - -"I know my rights, sir, let me tell you," this person shouted. "Lady me -no ladies, sir; I have a right to enter the room--'t is a public room. -Zounds, sir, cannot you perceive that I am a gentleman, if I am an -actor?" - -"I'll dare swear he could n't," muttered Mrs. Clive. - -"Nay, sir, you shall not intrude on the privacy of a lady," came the -voice of the landlord. - -"Out of the way, sirrah," the other cried, and at the same moment the -door was flung open, and a tall young man wearing a travelling cloak and -boots strode into the room followed by the landlord, at whom he turned -scowling at every step. - -"Madam, I give you my word that I am not to blame; the gentleman would -come in," cried the landlord. - -"That will do, sir," said the stranger. "I myself will make whatever -apology may be needed. I flatter myself that I have had to make many -apologies before now." - -"Madam," continued the landlord, "I told him that you--" - -"That will do, Boniface!" cried the other, standing between the landlord -and Mrs. Clive, who had risen. Then giving a smirk and a flourishing -bow, he said: "Madam, you look to be a sensible woman." - -"I vow, sir," said Kitty, "I have never been accused of being sensible -before. If you cannot pay a woman a better compliment than to call her -sensible, you would be wise to refrain from the attempt to flatter her." - -The pause that followed was broken by the self-satisfied chuckle of -the landlord. He seemed to take credit to himself for Kitty's sally. -He looked at the stranger, then at the lady; his face puckered with -a smile. Then he walked to the door, and gave another chuckle as he -glanced round with his hand on the door. - -"Mistress Kitty has taken the measure of my fine gentleman," he -muttered, with a shrewd wink; "there's no need for me here." - -His chuckle broadened into a guffaw as he went down the passage, having -closed the door. - -"Pray, madam, be not offended," the man who was facing Kitty managed -to say, after an interval. "If I called you sensible, I most humbly -apologise. No offence was meant, madam." - -"I believe that, sir; but no woman likes to be called sensible. You may -call one a silly piece, a romp, or a heartless coquette without offence; -but never a sensible woman." - -"I forgot myself for the moment, madam, owing to the treatment I -received at the hands of that bumpkin Boniface. I am, in what is -doubtless your condition--awaiting the coach, and I objected to be -relegated to the kitchen." - -"Faith, sir," said Kitty, with a laugh, as she returned to the settle, -"I have passed some pleasant enough hours in a kitchen." - -"And so have I, madam, when the wenches were well favoured," said the -man, assuming the sly look of a man who had seen life. [Men who fancied -they knew the world were as plentiful in the last century as they are in -the present.] "Yes, madam; but then I went into the kitchen by choice, -not on compulsion." - -"Maybe you left on compulsion; kitchen wenches have strong arms, sir," -remarked Kitty. - -"Nay, nay, madam, Jack Bates--my name, madam--has always been a -favourite with the wenches." - -"The kitchen wenches?" - -"Zounds, madam, a wench is a wench, whether in the kitchen or the -parlour, Oh, I know woman thoroughly: I have studied her. Woman is a -delightful branch of education." - -"Oh, sir!" cried Kitty, sinking in a curtesy with the look of mock -demureness with which she was accustomed to fascinate her audiences at -Drury Lane. - -Mr. Bates was fascinated by that look. He smiled good-naturedly, waving -his hat as if to deprecate the suggestion that he meant to be a gay dog. - -"Nay, be not fluttered, fair one," he cried with a smirk. "I protest -that I am a gentleman." - -"Oh, I breathe again," said Kitty, rising to the surface, so to speak, -after her curtesy, "A gentleman? I should never have guessed it. I -fancied I heard you assert that you were an actor--just the opposite, -you know." - -"So I am, madam. I am an actor," said Mr. Bates. Sharp though Kitty's -sarcasm was, it glanced off him. - -Kitty assumed a puzzled look. Then she pretended that his meaning had -dawned on her. - -"Oh, I see; you mean, sir, that you are the actor of the part of a -gentleman. Faith, sir, the part might have been better cast." - -"I hope that I am a gentleman first, and an actor afterwards, madam," -said Mr. Bates, with some measure of dignity. - -"In that case, I presume you were appearing in the former _role_ before -you arrived at the inn," said Kitty, whose sarcasm was at no time -deficient in breadth. - -Even Mr. Bates was beginning to appreciate her last sally, when she -added, "I do not remember having seen your name in a bill of any of the -London playhouses, Mr. Bates." - -"I have never appeared in London, madam," said Mr. Bates, "and, so far as -I can gather, I have not lost much by remaining in the country." - -"Nay, but think what the playgoers of London have lost, Mr. Bates," said -Kitty solemnly. - -"I do think of it," cried the man. "Yes, I swear to you that I do. When -I hear of the upstarts now in vogue I feel tempted sometimes to put my -pride in my pocket and appear in London." - -"Before starting in London, a person needs to have his pockets full of -something besides pride," said Kitty. "There are other ways of making -a fortune besides appearing on the London stage. Why should men come -to London to act when they may become highwaymen in the country--ay, or -inn-keepers--another branch of the same profession?" - -"It is clear, madam, that you have no high opinion of the stage. To let -you into a secret--neither have I." Mr. Bates' voice sank to a whisper, -and he gave a confidential wink or two while making this confession. - -Kitty was now truly surprised. Most actors of the stamp of Mr. Bates, -whom she had met, had a profound belief in the art of acting, and -particularly in themselves as exponents of that art. - -"What, sir!" she cried, "are you not an actor on your own confession, -whatever the critics may say?" - -"I admit it, my dear lady; but at the same time, I repeat that I have -no faith in the stage. Acting is the most unconvincing of the arts. Is -there ever a human being outside Bedlam who fancies that the stage hero -is in earnest?" - -"I should say that the force of the illusion is largely dependent upon -the actor," said Kitty. - -"Nothing of the sort, I assure you," said Bates, with a pitying -smile--the smile of the professor for the amateur. "The greatest of -actors--nay, even I myself, madam, fail to carry an audience along with -me so as to make my hearers lose sight of the sham. What child would be -imposed on by the sufferings of the stage hero or heroine? What school -miss would fail to detect the ring of falsehood in the romance of what -authors call their plots?" - -"You fancy that everyone should be capable of detecting the difference -between a woman's account of her real woes and an actress's simulation -of such woes?" - -"That is my contention, madam. The truth has a ring about it that cannot -be simulated by even the best actress." - -"Dear, dear!" cried Kitty, lifting up her hands. "What a wonder it is -that any persons can be prevailed upon to go evening after evening to -the playhouses! Why, I myself go--yes, frequently. Indeed--perhaps I -should blush to confess it--I am a constant attender at Drury Lane. I do -not believe I should be able to live without going to the playhouse!" - -"Tell the truth, madam," cried Mr. Bates, stretching out an eloquent -forefinger at her as she sat on the settle looking at her hands on her -lap, "have you ever sat out an entire play?" - -Kitty looked up and laughed loud and long, so that Mr. Bates felt -greatly flattered. He began to believe that he had just said a very -clever thing. - -"Well, there I allow that you have me," said Kitty. "Sir, I admit that -as a rule I do not remain seated during even an entire act of a play." - -"Ah," cried Mr. Bates triumphantly, "I knew that you were a sensible -woman, asking your pardon again for my presumption. Your confession -bears out my contention; and let me tell you that, on the stage, -matters, so far from improving, are steadily degenerating. I hear that -that young man Garrick is now more in vogue than that fine old actor, -Mr. Quin. Think of it, madam! A wine merchant they say this Garrick was. -Have you ever seen him?" - -"Oh, yes," said Kitty; "I have seen him." - -"And what may he be like?" - -"Mr. Garrick is like no one, and no one is like Mr. Garrick," said Kitty -warmly. - -"Ah!" Mr. Bates' lips were curled with a sneer that caused Kitty's feet -to tap the floor nervously. "Ah! A little fellow, I understand--not up -to my shoulder." - -"Physically, perhaps not," Kitty replied. "But the stature of Mr. -Garrick varies. I have seen him tower over every one on the stage--over -every one in the playhouse; and again I have seen him dwindle until he -was no higher than a child." - -Mr. Bates looked surprised. - -"How does he manage that? A stage trick, I expect." - -"I dare say 't is so--merely that stage trick--genius." - -"He could not deceive me: I would take his measure," said Mr. Bates, -with a shrewd smirk. - -"Still, I have heard that even the players beside him on the stage are -sometimes carried away with the force of his acting," said Kitty. - -"A paltry excuse for forgetting their lines!" sneered Mr. Bates. "Ah! no -actor could make a fool of me!" - -"Would anyone think it necessary to improve on Nature's handiwork in -this respect?" asked Kitty demurely. - -"How?" For a moment Mr. Bates had his doubts as to whether or not the -lady meant to pass a compliment upon him. The demure look upon her face -reassured him. "You are right, madam; they could easily see what I am," -he said, tapping his chest. - -"They could, indeed, sir," said Kitty, more demurely than ever. - -"I do not doubt, mind you, that there is a certain superficial ability -about this Mr. Garrick," resumed Mr. Bates in a condescending way. - -"I am sure that Mr. Garrick would feel flattered could he but know that -he had the good opinion of Mr. Bates," remarked Kitty. - -"Yes, I know that I am generous," said Mr. Bates. "But this Garrick--I -wonder what his Hamlet is like." - -"It is _like_ nothing, sir: it is Hamlet," cried Kitty. - -"You have seen it? What is he like when the ghost enters? I have made -that scene my own." - -Kitty sprang from the settle. - -"Like?" she said. "What is he like? He is like a man in the presence of -a ghost at first, and then--then the ghost becomes more substantial than -he. You hear a sudden cry--he stands transfixed with horror--you see -that he is not breathing, and he makes you one with himself. You cannot -breathe. You feel that his hand is on your heart. You are in the power -of his grasp. He can do what he pleases with you. If he tightens his -grasp you will never breathe again in this world. There is a terrible -pause--he draws his breath--he allows you to draw yours; but you feel in -that long silence you have been carried away to another world--you -are in a place of ghosts--there is nothing real of all that is about -you--you have passed into a land of shadows, and you are aware of a -shadow voice that can thrill a thousand men and women as though they -were but one person:-- - -"'Angels and ministers of grace defend us!' - -"Bah! what a fool I am!" cried Kitty, flinging herself excitedly upon -the settle. "Imitate Mr. Garrick? Sir, he is inimitable! One may imitate -an actor of Hamlet. David Garrick is not that; he is, I repeat, Hamlet -himself." - -Mr. Bates was breathing hard. There was a considerable pause before -he found words to say,--"Madam, for one who has no stage training, I -protest that you display some power. You have almost persuaded me to -admire another actor's Hamlet--a thing unheard of on the stage. I, -myself, play the part of the Prince of Denmark. It would gratify me to -be permitted to rehearse a scene in your presence. You would then see on -what points Mr. Garrick resembles me." - -"Oh, lord!" muttered Kitty, making a face behind Mr. Bates' back. - -"There is the scene at the grave. I am reckoned amazing in that scene." - -"Amazing? I do not doubt it." - -"I wonder how Mr. Garrick acts the grave scene." - -"Oh, sir,'t is his humour to treat it paradoxically." Kitty was now -herself again. "He does not treat the grave scene gravely but merrily." - -"Merrily?" - -"Why not? Novelty is everything in these days. Does not Mr. Macklin make -Shylock a serious and not a comic character? An innovation on the stage -draws the town." - -"Faith, madam, to act the grave scene in a burst of merriment is past an -innovation." - -"Not at all, sir. With Mr. Garrick it seems quite natural. He is one -of those actors who are superior to nature. I am sure you have met some -such." - -"I never met one who was otherwise." - -"Ah, then you will see how Mr. Garrick could enter upon the scene, -beginning to play bowls with Horatio, using skulls for the game; this -goes on for some time, while they quarrel on the score of the score. -They fling their skulls at one another, and then they take to fencing -with two thigh bones which they pick up. Hamlet runs Horatio through -with his bone, and he falls atop of the first grave-digger, who has -been watching the fight, and in pantomime--much is done by pantomime -nowadays--laying odds on Hamlet. Both topple over into the grave, and -Hamlet stands on the brink, convulsed with laughter. This, you observe, -gives extra point to Hamlet's enquiry, 'Whose grave is that, sirrah?' -and certainly extraordinary point to the man's reply, 'Mine, sir.' Has -it ever occurred to you to act the scene after that fashion?" - -"Never, madam--never, I swear," cried Mr. Bates heartily. - -"Ah, there you see is the difference between Mr. Garrick and you," said -Kitty. "Do you bring on Hamlet's Irish servant, Mr. Bates?" - -"Hamlet's Irish servant?" - -"Is it possible that you have not yet followed the new reading in the -scene where Hamlet comes upon the king praying?" - -"I know the scene," cried Mr. Bates, throwing himself into an attitude -as he began: "Oh, my offense is rank; it smells to heaven!" - -"That is it," cried Kitty, interrupting him. "Well, then Hamlet appears -with his Irish servant." - -"'Tis the first I've heard of him." - -"Let it not be the last.'T is a new reading. Hamlet enters, sees the -king, and then turns to his Irish servant saying, 'Now might I do it, -Pat'--the man's name is Patrick, you perceive?" - -"Madam, a more ridiculous innovation I protest I never heard of," said -Mr. Bates. - -"By my faith, sir,'t is not more ridiculous than some stage innovations -that I could name," said Kitty. - -"I could understand Kitty Clive introducing such a point into one of the -farces in which I hear she is a merry baggage, but--" - -"You have never seen Kitty Clive then?" - -"Never, but I hear she is a romp. Are you an admirer of hers, madam?" - -"Sir, she has no more devoted admirer than myself," said Kitty, looking -at the man straight in the face. - -"Is she not a romp?" - -"Oh, surely, a sad, sad romp. She has by her romping, saved many a play -from being damned." - -"She is so great a favorite with playgoers, I doubt her ability," said -Mr. Bates. "I doubt if she could move me. What is the nature of her -merriment?" - -"Extravagance, sir, extravagance. She bounces on as a hoyden, and -pulls a long face like this"--even Mr. Bates roared at Kitty's long -face--"behind the back of the very proper gentleman who has come to woo -her. She catches the point of his sword sheath so that when he tries to -turn he almost falls. She pretends that he has struck her with his sword -and she howls with pain. He hastens to comfort her--down goes a chair, -and he topples over it. 'Murder, murder!' she cries, and snatches up the -shovel as if to defend herself. My gentleman recovers, and hastens to -assure her of his honourable intentions. She keeps him off with her -shovel. He drops his hat, and she shovels it up and runs around the room -to throw it on the fire. He follows her over tables, chairs, and a sofa -or two. 'Tally ho!' she cries and gives a view-halloo. Round the room -they go, and just as he is at the point of catching her she uses the -shovel as a racket, and sends the hat flying, and at the same stroke, -sends her lover sprawling." - -"Madam, she is a vulgar jade, I swear," cried Mr. Bates. He was more out -of breath than Kitty, for she had acted the part so vividly that she -had forced him involuntarily to take the part of the hoyden's lover, and -both he and his hat had suffered. "That scene which you have described -bears out my argument that the more outrageous a scene is, the better -pleased are the public. Women do not make fools of men in real life." - -"Indeed, sir?" - -"No; there you have the absurdity of the stage. Authors set reason and -sense at defiance, daily. Shakespeare is one of the worst offenders." - -"What, Shakespeare?" - -"Oh, believe me, madam, Shakespeare is a greatly over-rated writer. -Look, for instance, at his play of 'Romeo and Juliet': Romeo sees the -lady, exchanges a few words with her, and falls at once in love with -her. He has only to rant beneath her window by the light of the moon, -and forthwith she agrees to marry him, and sure enough, they are married -the very next day. Good lord! Would Shakespeare have us believe that -men can be so easily fooled? Our moderns have not greatly improved upon -Shakespeare." - -"I am with you there, sir, heart and soul." - -"No, they still outrage sense by their plots. A man meets a woman quite -by chance. She tells him a cock and bull story that any fool could see -outrages probability; but he is captivated in a moment. He falls on his -knees before her and vows that she has only to speak to make him the -happiest of mortals. All this is, madam, I need scarcely say, quite -monstrous and unnatural. Such a proceeding could not occur outside -Bedlam." - -"This gentleman should be taught a lesson," said Kitty to herself, as -she watched Mr. Bates swaggering across the room. She became thoughtful -for a moment, and then smiled--only for a second, however; then she -became grave and her voice faltered as she said: "Sir, I protest that I -never before knew--nay, felt--what real eloquence was--eloquence wedded -to reason." - -"Nay, madam," smirked Mr. Bates. - -"'T is the truth, sir. May I hope that you will not think me too -forward, if I venture to express a humble opinion, sir?" Her voice was -low, and it certainly faltered more than before. - -"I shall treasure that opinion, madam," said Mr. Bates. That soft voice -produced its impression upon him. He felt that he was in the presence of -an amazingly fine woman. - -"You will not be offended, sir, if I say that I feel it to be a great -pity that one who has such eloquence at his command should spend his -time merely repeating the phrases--the very inferior phrases--of others. -The Senate, sir, should be your stage. You are not angry, sir?" - -She had laid a hand upon his arm and was looking pleadingly up to his -face. - -"Angry?" cried Mr. Bates, patting her hand, at which she turned her -eyes, modestly from his face to the ground. - -"Angry? Nay, dear lady, you have but expressed what I have often -thought." - -"I am so glad that you are not offended by my presumption, sir," said -Kitty, removing her hand--Mr. Bates did not seem willing to let it go. -"If you were offended, I protest that I should be the most wretched of -women." - -Mr. Bates marked how her voice broke, He took a step after her, as she -went to the settle. - -"Dear madam, you deserve to be the happiest rather than the most -wretched of your sex," he said--his voice was also very soft and low. - -Kitty turned to him, crying quickly: "And I should be so if--" here -she sighed--it seemed to Mr. Bates quite involuntarily. "Pardon me: -I--I--that is--sometimes the heart forces the lips to speak when they -should remain silent. A woman is a simple creature, sir." - -"A woman is a very fascinating creature, I vow," cried Mr. Bates, and he -felt that he was speaking the truth. - -"Ah, Mr. Bates, she has a heart: that is woman's weakness--her heart!" -murmured Kitty. - -"I protest that she has not a monopoly of that organ," said Mr. Bates. -"May not a man have a heart also, sweet one?" - -"Alas!" sighed Kitty, "it has not been my lot to meet with any but those -who are heartless. I have often longed--but why should I burden you with -the story of my longings--of my sufferings?" - -"Your woman's instinct tells you that you have at last met with a man -who has a heart. I have a heart, dear creature. Was it my fate brought -me into this room to-day? Was it my inscrutable destiny that led me to -meet the most charming--" - -"Pray, Mr. Bates, be merciful as you are strong!" cried Kitty, pressing -one hand to her tumultuous bosom. "Do not compel a poor weak woman to -betray her weakness: the conqueror should be merciful. What a voice is -yours, sir! What poor woman could resist its melody? Oh, sir, forgive -the tears of a weak, unhappy creature." - -She had thrown herself on the settle and had laid her head upon one of -its arms. - -In an instant he was beside her and had caught her hand. - -"Nay, dear one, I cannot forgive the tears that dim those bright eyes," -he whispered in her ear. "You have had a past, madam?" - -"Ah, sir," cried Kitty, from the folds of her handkerchief, "all my life -up to the present has been my past--that is why I weep." - -"Is it so sad as that? You have a story?" - -"Should I tell it to you?" said Kitty, raising her head suddenly and -looking at the face that was so near hers. "I will, I will--yes, I will -trust you--you may be able to help me." - -"With my latest breath!" cried Mr. Bates. - -"Sir, to be brief, I am a great heiress," said Kitty, quite calmly. Mr. -Bates started, his eyes brightened. "My uncle was trustee of my father's -property--it is in two counties," continued Kitty. "For some years after -my father's death I had no reason for complaint. But then a change came. -My uncle's son appeared upon the scene, and I soon perceived his true -character--a ruined, dissolute scamp, I knew him to be, and when I -rejected his advances with scorn, his father, who I fancied was my -friend, commenced such a series of persecutions as would have broken a -less ardent spirit than mine. They did not move me. They shut me up in a -cold, dark dungeon and loaded these limbs of mine with fetters." - -"The infernal ruffians!" - -"They fed me with bread and water. They tortured me by playing on the -harpsichord outside my prison all the best known airs from the _Beggars' -Opera_. - -"Horrible!" - -"Oh, I thought I should have gone mad--mad; but I knew that that was -just what they wanted, in order that they might shut me up in Bedlam, -and enjoy my property. I made a resolution not to go mad, and I have -adhered to it ever since." - -"Noble girl!" - -"At last the time came when I could stand their treatment no longer. -I flung my iron fetters to the winds--I burst through the doors of my -prison and rushed into the dining-hall where my two persecutors were -carousing in their cups. They sprang up with a cry of horror when I -appeared. My uncle's hand was upon the bell, when I felled him with a -heavy glass decanter. With a yell--I hear it now--his son sprang upon -me--he went down beneath the stroke of the ten-light chandelier which I -hastily plucked down and hurled at him. I called for a horse and chaise. -They were at the door in a moment and I fled all night. But alas! alas! -I feel that my flight shall avail me nothing. They are on my track, and -I shall be forced to marry at least one of them. But no, no, sooner than -submit, with this dagger--" - -She had sprung from her place and her hand was grasping something inside -her bodice, when Mr. Bates caught her firmly by the wrist. - -"You shall do nothing so impious, madam," he cried. - -"Who shall prevent me?" cried Kitty, struggling with him. "Who shall -save me from my persecutors?" - -"I, madam--I will do it!" cried Mr. Bates. - -"You--how?" Kitty had now ceased to struggle. - -"I will marry you myself!" shouted Mr. Bates, grasping both her hands. - -"But only half an hour has passed since we met," said Kitty, looking -down. - -"That is enough, madam, to convince me that my heart is yours. Sweet -one, I throw myself at your feet. Let me be your protector. Let me hold -you from your persecutors. Dearest lady, marry me and you are safe." - -"Thank heaven--thank heaven I have found a friend!" murmured Kitty. - -"You agree?" said Mr. Bates, rising to his feet. - -"Oh, sir, I am overcome with gratitude," cried Kitty, throwing herself -into his arms. - -"An heiress--and mine," Mr. Bates whispered. - -"Mistress Clive, the gentleman has arrived--oh, lud! what has Kitty been -up to?" - -The landlord was standing at the door with his hands raised. - -"'T is my brother, Jimmy Raftor," said Kitty, coolly arranging the -disordered hood of her cloak before the glass. "Jimmy is one of the best -pistol-shots in all Ireland, and that's saying a good deal. Show the -gentleman in, Mr. Landlord." - -Mr. Bates stood aghast. "Mistress Clive--not Kitty Clive of Drury Lane?" -he faltered. - -"I am Kitty Clive of Drury Lane, at your service, sir, if you should -need another lesson to convince you that even the most ridiculous story, -if plausibly told, will carry conviction to the most astute of men." - -Kitty Clive sank in a mock curtesy; the landlord roared with laughter; -Mr. Bates stood amazed in the center of the room. - - - - -A QUESTION OF ART - - -I - -If only she had a heart she would be perfect," said Mr. Garrick to his -friend, Mrs. Woffington. - -"Ay, as an actress, not as a woman," said Mrs. Woffington. "'T is -not the perfect women who have been most liberally supplied with that -organ." - -"Faith, Madam Peggy, I, David Garrick, of Drury Lane Theatre, have good -reason to set much more store upon the perfect actress than the perfect -woman," said Mr. Garrick. "If I had no rent to pay and no actors to pay, -I might be led to spend a profitable hour or two over the consideration -of so interesting a question as the relative merits of the perfect woman -with no heart worth speaking of and the perfect actress with a dangerous -superfluity of the same organ. Under existing conditions, however, I beg -leave to--" - -"Psha! Davy," said Margaret; "try not your scholarship upon so poor a -thing as myself! It seems to me that you have never quite recovered -from the effects of your early training at the feet of our friend, Mr. -Johnson." - -"Alas! Peggy," said Garrick, "I have forgot all the better part of Mr. -Johnson's instruction. He has no reason to be proud of me." - -"And yet he is proud of you, and, by my faith, he has some reason to be -so. Was it not he made you an actor?" - -"He! Mr. Johnson? oh, Lord, he never ceased to inculcate upon us a just -hatred and contempt of all that appertains to the stage." - -"Ay, and that was the means of making you thoroughly interested in all -that appertains to the stage, my friend. But I hold as I have always -held, that Mr. Johnson gave you first chance. - -"What sophistry is this that you have seized upon, my dear? My first -chance?" - -"Yes, sir; I hold that your first and, I doubt not, your greatest, -success as an actor, was your imitation for the good of your -schoolfellows, of the mighty love passages between your good preceptor -and that painted piece of crockery who had led him to marry her, that -was old enough--ay, and nearly plain enough--to be his mother. What did -he call her?--his Tiffy?--his Taffy?" - -"Nay, only his Tessy, The lady's name was Elizabeth, you must know." - -"Call her Saint Elizabeth, Davy--your patron saint, for, by the Lord -Harry, you would never have thought of coming on the stage if it had not -been for the applause you won when you returned to the schoolroom after -peeping through the door of the room where your schoolmaster chased his -Tessy into a corner for a kiss! Davy, 't is your finest part still. If -you and I were to act it, with a prologue written by Mr. Johnson, it -would draw all the town." - -"I doubt it not; but it would likewise draw down upon me the wrath of -Mr. Johnson; and that is not to be lightly faced. But we have strayed -from our text, Margaret." - -"Our text? I have forgotten that there was some preaching being done. -But all texts are but pretexts for straying, uttered in the hearing of -the strayed. What is your text, Davy?" - -"The text is the actress without the heart, Margaret, and the evil that -she doeth to the writer of the tragedy, to the man who hath a lease -of the playhouse, and above all to her sister actress, Mistress -Woffington." - -"The last of the three evils would imperil the soul's safety of as -blameless a lady as Kitty Clive herself. But, if Mistress Woffington -acts her part well in the new tragedy, I scarce see how she can be hurt -by the bad acting of Miss Hoppner." - -"That is because you are a trifle superficial in your views of the -drama, Mistress Woffington. What would you think of the painter who -should declare that, if the lights in his picture were carefully put in, -the shadows might be left to chance?" - -"Where is the analogy, David?" - -"It is apparent: the tragedy is the picture, Mrs. Woffington represents -the lighting, and Miss Hoppner the shading. Heavens! Mrs. Woffington, -madam, do you flatter yourself that the playgoers will be willing to -accept the author's account of the fascinations of the woman whom -you are representing, if you fail to rouse your rival to any point of -jealousy? Miss Hoppner, for all the strong language the poet puts into -her mouth, will not make the playgoers feel that the Lady Oriana bears -you a grudge for having taken her lover from her; and when she stabs you -with her dagger, she does so in such a halfhearted way that the whole -house will perceive that she is not in earnest." - -"Then they will blame her, and she will deserve the blame. They cannot -blame me." - -"Cannot they, indeed? Lord, my good woman, you little know the -playgoers. You think that they are so nice in their discrimination? -You should have learnt better since the days you hung on to Madame -Violanti's feet on the tight rope. If you had wriggled so that Violanti -had slipped off her rope, would her patrons have blamed aught but her? -Nay, you know that they would only have sneered at her clumsiness, and -thought nothing of the little devil who had upset her." - -"Ay; I begin to perceive your meaning. You apprehend that the playgoers -will damn the play and all associated with it, because Miss Hoppner does -not kill me with sufficient good-will?" - -"I feel sure that they will say that if Mrs. Woffington had only acted -with sufficient intensity she would have stirred her rival into so real -a passion of jealousy that she would have stabbed you in a fury." - -"Look you here, friend Davy; if it be in your thoughts that Mairgaret -Woffington is to be held accountable for the mistakes of all the other -members of your company, you would do well to revise your salary list." - -"Nay, Peggy; I only said what the playgoers will, in their error, mind -you, assume." - -"Come, Mr. Garrick, tell me plainly what you want me to do for you in -this business. What, sir, are we not on sufficiently friendly terms for -plain speaking? Tell me all that is on your mind, sir?" - -Garrick paused for some moments, and then laughed in a somewhat -constrained way, before walking on by the side of his friend. - -"Come, sir," continued Mrs. Woffington. "Be as plain as you please. I am -not prone to take offence." - -"We'll talk of that anon," said Garrick. "Perhaps Mr. Macklin will be -able to give us his helpful counsel in this business." - -"Psha!" said Peggy. "Mr. Macklin could never be brought to see with your -eyes." - -"Then he will be all the better able to give us the result of Mr. -Macklin's observation," said Garrick. - -"Ay, but that is not what you want, Davy," said Mrs. Woffington, with a -pretty loud laugh. "No one ever calls in a counsellor with the hope of -obtaining an unprejudiced opinion; the only counsellor in whom we have -confidence is he who corroborates our own views." - - -II - -They had reached their house. It was No. 6 Bow Street, and it was -presided over by Macklin--Garrick and Mrs. Woffington doing the -housekeeping on alternate months. - -Visitors preferred calling during Peggy's month, as the visitor, who was -now greeted by David Garrick in the parlour, testified in the presence -of his biographer years after; for it was Samuel Johnson who awaited the -return from rehearsal of his Lichfield pupil, David Garrick. - -"You shall have a dish of tea, Mr. Johnson, if we have to go thirsty for -the rest of the week," cried the actress, when her hand had been kissed -by her visitor. Johnson's kissing of her hand was strangely suggestive -of an elephant's picking up a pin. - -"Madam," said he, "your offer is made in the true spirit of hospitality. -Hospitality, let me tell you, consists not, as many suppose, in the -sharing of one's last crust with a friend--for the sacrifice in parting -with a modicum of so unappetising a comestible as a crust is not -great--nay; hospitality, to become a virtue, involves a real sacrifice." - -"So in heaven's name let us have the tea," said Garrick. "Make it not -too strong," he whispered to Peggy as he opened the door for her. "I -have seen him drain his tenth cup at a sitting." - -The actress made a mocking gesture by way of reply. She did not share -Garrick's parsimonious longings, and in the matter of tea brewing, she -was especially liberal. When she returned to the room bearing aloft a -large teapot, and had begun to pour out the contents, Garrick complained -bitterly of the strength of the tea, as his guest years afterwards told -Boswell. - -"'T is as red as blood," growled the actor. - -"And how else should it be, sir?" cried Mrs. Woffington. "Is 't not the -nature of good tea to be red?" - -As Garrick continued growling, Peggy laughed the more heartily, and, -with an air of coquettish defiance which suited her admirably, poured -out a second brimming cup for their visitor--he had made very light of -the first--taking no care to avoid spilling some into the saucer. - -"Faith, sir, Mr. Garrick is right: 'tis as red as blood," laughed Peggy, -looking with mischievous eyes into Johnson's face. - -"That were an indefinite statement, madam; its accuracy is wholly -dependent on the disposition of the person from whom the blood is -drawn," said Johnson. "Now yours, I believe, madam, to be of a rich -and generous hue, but Davy's, I doubt not, is a pale and meagre -fluid--somewhat resembling the wine which he endeavored to sell, with, -let us hope for the sake of the health of his customers, indifferent -success for some years." - -Garrick laughed with some constraint, while Mrs. Woffington roared with -delight. - -"Nay, sir; you are too hard upon me," cried the actor. - -"What! would the rascal cry up his blood at the expense of his wine?" -said Johnson. "That, sir, were to eulogise nature at the expense of -art--an ill proceeding for an actor." - -"And that brings us back to the question which we discussed on our way -hither from the theatre," said Peggy. "List, good Mr. Johnson, to the -proposition of Mr. Garrick. He says that I should be held accountable -for the tameness in the acting of the part of a jealous woman by Miss -Hoppner, who is to appear in the tragedy on Tuesday week." - -"I do not doubt, madam, that you should be held accountable for the -jealousy of many good women in the town," said Johnson; "but it passes -my knowledge by what sophistry your responsibility extends to any matter -of art." - -"Mrs. Woffington has not told you all, sir," said Garrick. "She is, as -you may well suppose, the creature in the tragedy who is supposed to -excite the bitter jealousy of another woman. Now, I submit that the -play-goers will be ready to judge of the powers of Mrs. Woffington as -exercised in the play, by its effect upon the other characters in the -said play." - -"How so, sir?" said Johnson. "Why, sir," replied Garrick, "I maintain -that, when they perceive that the woman who is meant to be stung to a -point of madness through her jealousy of a rival, is scarce moved at -all, they will insensibly lay the blame upon her rival, saying that the -powers of the actress were not equal to the task assigned to her by the -poet." - -"And I maintain, sir, that a more ridiculous contention than yours could -not be entertained by the most ignorant of men--nay, the most ignorant -of actors, and to say so much, sir, is to say a great deal," cried -Johnson. "I pray you, friend Davy, let no men know that I was once your -teacher, if you formulate such foolishness as this; otherwise, it would -go hard with me in the world." - -"Ah, sir, that last sentence shows that you are in perfect accord with -the views which I have tried to express to you," said Garrick. "You are -ready to maintain that the world will hold you accountable for whatever -foolishness I may exhibit. The playgoers will, on the same principle, -pronounce on the force of Mrs. Woffington's fascinations by the effect -they have, not upon the playgoers themselves, but upon Miss Hoppner." - -"Then the playgoers will show themselves to be the fools which I have -always suspected them of being," said Johnson, recovering somewhat -ungracefully from the effects of swallowing a cup of tea; "Ay, but how -are we to fool them?--that's the question, Mr. Johnson," said Peggy. "I -have no mind to get the blame which should fall on the shoulders of Miss -Hoppner; I would fain have the luxury of qualifying for blame by my own -act." - -"What! you mean, madam, that before receiving the punishment for -sinning, you would fain enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season? That -is, I fear, but indifferent morality," said Johnson, shaking his head -and his body as well with even more than his accustomed vehemence. - -"Look you here, Mrs. Woffington," said Garrick. "You are far too kind to -Miss Hoppner. That would not be bad of itself, but when it induces her -to be kindly disposed to you, it cannot be tolerated. She is a poor -fool, and so is unable to stab with proper violence one who has shown -herself her friend." - -"She cannot have lived in the world of fashion," remarked Johnson. - -"Lud! would you have me arouse the real passion in the good woman for -the sake of the play?" cried Peggy. - -"He would e'en degrade nature by making her the handmaid of art. -Sir, let me tell you this will not do, and there's an end on't," said -Johnson. - -"Then the play will be damned, sir," said Garrick. - -"Let the play be damned, sir, rather than a woman's soul," shouted -Johnson. - -"Meantime you will have another cup of tea, Mr. Johnson," said Peggy, -smiling with a witchery of that type which, exercised in later years, -caused her visitor to make a resolution never to frequent the green -room of Drury Lane--a resolution which was possibly strengthened by the -failure of his tragedy. - -"Mrs. Woffington," said he, passing on his empty cup, "let me tell you I -count it a pity so excellent a brewer of tea should waste her time upon -the stage. Any wench may learn to act, but the successful brewing of tea -demands the exercise of such judgment as cannot be easily acquired. -Briefly, the woman is effaced by the act of going on the stage; but the -brewing of tea is a revelation of femininity." He took three more -cupfuls. - -***** - -The tragedy of "Oriana," from the rehearsal of which Garrick and Mrs. -Woffington had returned to find Johnson at their house on Bow Street, -was by an unknown poet, but Garrick had come to the conclusion, after -reading it, that it possessed sufficient merit to justify his producing -it at Drury Lane. It abounded in that form of sentiment which found -favor with playgoers in an age of artificiality, and its blank verse was -strictly correct and inexpressible. It contained an apostrophe to -the Star of Love, and eulogies of Liberty, Virtue, Hope, and other -abstractions, without which no eighteenth century tragedy was considered -to be complete. Oriana was a Venetian lady of the early republican -period. She was in love with one Orsino, a prince, and they exchanged -sentiments in the first act, bearing generally upon the advantages -of first love, without touching upon its economic aspects. Unhappily, -however, Orsino allowed himself to be attracted by a lady named -Francesca, who made up in worldly possessions for the absence of those -cheerless sentiments which Oriana had at her fingers' ends, and the -result was that Oriana ran her dagger into the heart of her rival, into -the chest of her faithless lover, and into her own stays. The business -was carried on by the sorrowing relations of the three, with the -valuable assistance of the ghosts of the slain, who explained their -relative positions with fluency and lucidity, and urged upon the -survivors, with considerable argumentative skill, the advisability of -foregoing the elaborate scheme of revenge which each side was hoping -to carry out against the other from the date of the obsequies of the -deceased. - -The character of Oriana was being rehearsed by Miss Hoppner, an -extremely handsome young woman, whom Garrick had met and engaged in the -country, Mrs. Woffington being the fatally fascinating Francesca, and -Garrick, himself, the Prince Orsino. - -The tragedy had been in rehearsal for a fortnight, and it promised well, -if the representative of the jealous woman could only be brought to "put -a little life into the death scene"--the exhortation which the -Irish actress of the part of Francesca offered to her daily, but -ineffectually. Miss Hoppner neither looked the part of a tragically -jealous woman, nor did the stabbing of her rival in anything like that -whirlwind of passion with which Garrick, in spite of the limping of the -blank verse of the poet, almost swept the rest of the company off the -stage when endeavoring to explain to the actress what her representation -lacked, on the day after his chat with Mrs. Woffington on the same -subject. - -Poor Miss Hoppner took a long breath, and passed her hand across her -eyes as if to get rid of the effects of that horrible expression of -deadly hate which Garrick's face had worn, as he had craned his head -forward close to hers to show her how she should stab her rival--the -slow movement of his body suggesting the stealth of the leopard -approaching its victim, and his delivery of the lines through his -teeth more than suggesting the hissing of a deadly snake in the act of -springing. - -"Ay, do it that way, my dear madam," said Mrs. Woffington, "and the day -after the tragedy is played, you will be as famous as Mr. Garrick. 'T is -the simplest thing in the world." - -[Illustration: 0130] - -"You have so unnerved me, sir, that I vow I have no head for my lines," -said Miss Hoppner. - -But when, by the aid of the prompter, the lines were recovered and -she had repeated the scene, the result showed very little improvement. -Garrick grumbled, and Miss Hoppner was tearful, as they went to the -wardrobe room to see the dresses which had just been made for the -principal ladies. - -Miss Hoppner's tears quickly dried when she was brought face to face -with the gorgeous fabric which she was to wear. It was a pink satin -brocaded with white hawthorne, the stomacher trimmed with pearls. She -saw that it was infinitely superior to the crimson stuff which had been -assigned to Mrs. Woffington. She spoke rapturously of the brocade, and -hurried with it in front of a mirror to see how it suited her style of -beauty. - -Mrs. Woffington watched her with a smile. A sudden thought seemed to -strike her, and she gave a little laugh. After a moment's hesitation she -went behind the other actress and said: - -"I'm glad to see that you admire my dress, Miss Hoppner." - -"Your dress?" said Miss Hoppner. "Oh, yes, that crimson stuff--'t -is very becoming to you, I'm sure, Mrs. Woffington; though, for that -matter, you look well in everything." - -"'T is you who are to wear the crimson, my dear," said Peggy. "I have -made up my mind that the one you hold in your hand is the most suitable -for me in the tragedy." - -"Nay, madam, Mr. Garrick assigned this one to me, and I think 't will -suit me very well." - -"That is where Mr. Garrick made a mistake, child," said Peggy. "And -I mean to repair his error. The choice of dresses lies with me, Miss -Hoppner." - -"I have yet to be made aware of that, madam." said Miss Hoppner. Her -voice had a note of shrillness in it, and Garrick, who was standing -apart, noticed that her colour had risen with her voice. He became -greatly interested in these manifestations of a spirit beyond that which -she had displayed when rehearsing the tragedy. - -"The sooner you are made aware of it, the better it will be for all -concerned," said Mrs. Woffington, with a deadly smile. - -"I make bold to assure you, madam, that I shall be instructed on this -point by Mr. Garrick and Mr. Garrick only," said the other, raising -her chin an inch or two higher than she was wont, except under great -provocation. - -"I care not whom you make your instructor, provided that you receive the -instruction," sneered Peggy. - -"Mr. Garrick," cried Miss Hoppner, "I beg that you will exercise your -authority. You assigned to me the brocade, did you not, sir?" - -"And I affirm that the brocade will be more suitably worn by me, sir," -said Peggy. "And I further affirm that I mean to wear it, Mr. Garrick." - -"I would fain hope that the caprice of a vain woman will not be -permitted to have force against every reasonable consideration," said -Miss Hoppner, elevating her chin by another inch as she glanced out of -the corners of her eyes in the direction of the other actress. - -"That is all I ask for, madam; and as we are so agreed, I presume that -you will hand me over the gown without demur." - -"Yours is the caprice, madam, let me tell you. I have right on my side." - -"And I shall have the brocade on mine by way of compensation, my dear -lady." - -"Ladies!" cried Garrick, interposing, "I must beg of you not to -embarrass me. 'T is a small matter--this of dress, and one that should -not make a disagreement between ladies of talent. If one is a good -actress, one can move an audience without so paltry an auxiliary as a -yard or two of silk." - -"I will not pay Miss Hoppner so poor a compliment as would be implied by -the suggestion that she needs the help of a silk brocade to eke out her -resources as an actress," said Peggy. - -"I ask not for compliments from Mrs. Woffington. The brocade was -assigned to me, and--" - -"It would be ungenerous to take advantage of Mr. Garrick's error, -madam." - -"It was no error, Mrs. Woffington." - -"What! you would let all the world know that Mr. Garrick's opinion was -that you stood in need of a showy gown to conceal the defects of your -art?" - -"You are insolent, Mrs. Woffington!" - -"Nay, nay, my dear ladies; let's have no more of this recrimination over -a question of rags. It is unworthy of you," said Garrick. - -"I feel that, sir, and so I mean to wear the brocade," said Mrs. -Woffington. "Good lud, Mr. Garrick, what were you thinking of when you -assigned to the poor victim of the murderess in the tragedy the crimson -robe which was plainly meant to be in keeping with the gory intentions -of her rival?" - -"Surely I did not commit that mistake," said Garrick. "Heavens! where -can my thoughts have been? Miss Hoppner, madam, I am greatly vexed--" - -"Let her take her brocade," cried Miss Hoppner, looking with indignant -eyes, first at the smiling Peggy, and then at Garrick, who was acting -the part of a distracted man to perfection. "Let her wear it and see -if it will hide the shortcomings of her complexion from the eyes of the -playgoers." - -She walked away with a sniff before Peggy could deliver any reply. - - -III - -Pray what trick have you on your mind now? asked Garrick, when he was -alone with Peggy. "What was that caprice of yours?" - -"Caprice? You are a fool, Davy. You even forget your own precepts, which -your friend Mr. Johnson, in his wisdom condemned so heartily yesterday." - -"Good Lord! You mean to--" - -"I mean to make Miss Hoppner act the part of a jealous woman to -perfection." And she did so. The next day at the rehearsal, Garrick, as -well as every member of the company, was amazed at the energy which -Miss Hoppner contrived to impart to the scene in the play where, in the -character of Oriana, she stabbed her successful rival. She acted with a -force that had scarcely been surpassed by Garrick's reading of the scene -for her instruction the previous day. - -"Faith, Peggy, you have given her a weapon for your own undoing," said -Garrick, as he walked home with Mrs. Woffington. "She will eclipse you, -if you do not mind." - -"I 'll e'en run the risk," said Peggy. - -Alas! the next day Miss Hoppner was as feeble as ever--nay, the stabbing -scene had never been so feebly gone through by her; and Garrick grumbled -loudly. - -Miss Hoppner did not seem to mind. At the end of the rehearsal she -sought Peggy and offered her her hand. - -"Mrs. Woffington," she said, "I am desirous of asking your pardon for -my curtness in the matter of the dress. I owe so much to your kindness, -madam, I feel that my attempt to fix a quarrel upon you was the more -base. Pray, forgive an unhappy creature, who only seeks to retain the -honour of your friendship." - -"Oh, you goose!" said Peggy. "Why are you so foolish as to desire to -make friends with me? You should have hated me--been ready to kill -me--anything for the sake of becoming an actress." - -"You will not refuse me the forgiveness which I implore?" said Miss -Hoppner. - -"Nay, nay; I was in the wrong; it was my caprice, but carried out solely -on your behalf, child," said Peggy. - -"On my behalf? Oh, you are quite right; I was beginning to forget -myself--to forget that I was but a provincial actress." - -"Oh, you good natured creature!" cried Peggy. "I'll have to begin all -over again." - -They had reached the stage door by this time, and were standing together -in the long passage when a tall and good-looking man was admitted, -enquiring for Miss Hoppner. Peggy did not fail to notice the brightening -of the color of her companion as the gentleman advanced and took off -his hat with a low bow. It was with a certain proprietary air that Miss -Hoppner presented him to Peggy, by the name of Captain Joycelyn, of the -Royal Scots. - -"Captain Joycelyn is one of your warmest admirers, Mrs. Woffington," -said Miss Hoppner. - -"Sir, I am overwhelmed," said Mrs. Woffington, with a deep courtesy. - -"Nay, madam, I am your servant, I swear," said the gentleman. "I have -often longed for this honor, but it ever seemed out of my reach. We of -the Royal Scots consider ourselves no mean judges of your art, and we -agree that the playhouse without Mrs. Woffington would be lusterless." - -"Ah, sir, you would still have Mrs. Clive," suggested Peggy. - -"Mrs. Clive? You can afford to be generous, madam," laughed Captain -Joycelyn. - -"She is the most generous woman alive," said Miss Hoppner. "She will -prove herself such if she converses with you here for five minutes. I -was going away forgetting that I had to talk to the wardrobe mistress -about my turban. I shall not be more than five minutes away." - -"I protest it makes no demand upon my generosity to remain to listen -to so agreeable a critic, though I admit that I do so with a certain -tremor, sir," said Peggy, with a charming assumption of the fluttered -miss. - -"A certain tremor? Why should you have a tremor, dear madam?" said the -officer. - -"Ah,'t is the talk of the town that all hearts go down before the Royal -Scots, as the King's enemies did in the Low Countries." - -"An idle rumour, madam, I do assure you." - -"I might have thought so up till now; but now I think I would do wisely -to retreat in order, Captain, while there is yet time." - -She looked up at his face with a smile of matchless coquetry. - -"Nay, madam, you shall not stir," said he, laughing. "'T is not the -conqueror that should retreat. I am too conscientious a soldier to -permit so gross a violation of the art of war. Seriously, why should you -fly?" - -"I am a poor strategist, but I have a sense of danger. Is Miss Hoppner a -special friend of yours, sir?" - -"A special friend? Well, we have been acquaintances for nigh half a -year." - -"I thought I had seen her by your side at Ranelagh. She looked very -happy. I dare say I should be ashamed to confess it, but I envied her." - -Peggy's eyes were turned upon the ground with a demureness that -represented the finest art of the coquette. - -"You--you envied her?" cried the officer. "How humble must be your -aspirations, sweet creature! If I should not be thought to be over-bold -I would offer--ah! I fear that so brief an acquaintanceship as ours does -not warrant my presumption--" - -"And yet you do not look like one who would be likely to give offense by -overpresumption, sir." - -"I should be sorry to do so, madam. Well, if you promise not to flout -me, I will say that if you will accept my escort any night to the -Gardens, you will do me a great honour." - -"Oh, sir, your graceful offer overwhelms me. But, alas! all my evenings -are not my own. I am free but this evening and to-morrow evening." - -"Then why not come this evening, madam?" - -"Why not, indeed? only--is 't not too sudden, Captain? Ah, the dash of -Royal Scots cannot be resisted!" - -At this moment Miss Hoppner returned, and Peggy cried to her, "My dear -child, your friend is Mercury--the messenger of the Elysian Fields--he -has invited us to accompany him to Ranelagh to-night." - -"Indeed! That is kind of him," said Miss Hoppner, without any great show -of enthusiasm. "And you have accepted his invitation?" - -"Ah! who could refuse?" cried Peggy. She had not failed to notice -Captain Joycelyn's little start at her assumption that Miss Hoppner was -also to be of the party. "You will not mar our enjoyment by refusing to -come, my dear?" she added. - -"Nay; if 't is all settled, I will not hold aloof," said Miss Hoppner, -brightening up somewhat. - -They went out together, and before Peggy had parted from the others, the -manner and the hour of their going had been arranged. - - -IV - -They went up to the gardens by boat. Their party numbered four, for -Miss Hoppner had, when alone with Captain Joycelyn, so pouted that he -had promised to bring with him a brother officer to add symmetry to -the party. But if she fancied that this gentleman, who was one Ensign -Cardew, was to be the companion of Mrs. Woffington, she soon became -sensible of her mistake. By some strange error, for which only Peggy -could account the couples got parted in the crowd, Peggy and the Captain -disappearing mysteriously, and only meeting the Ensign and his companion -at supper time. - -The merriment of Peggy, at the supper, and the high spirits of Captain -Joycelyn, who allowed himself to be spoon-fed by her with minced -chicken, were powerless to disperse the cloud which hung over Miss -Hoppner. She pouted at the supper, and pouted in the boat, and made only -sarcastic replies to the exclamations of enjoyment addressed to her by -the volatile Peggy. - -The next day, before the rehearsal of the tragedy, Miss Hoppner said to -Peggy, who was renewing her protestations of the enjoyment she had had -on the previous evening: - -"I think it right that you should know, Mrs. Woffington, that Captain -Joycelyn some time ago made a proposal of marriage to me, which I -accepted." - -"Good creature, what has that to do with me?" asked Peggy. "Captain -Joycelyn certainly said nothing to me on that particular subject last -night, and why should you do so now?" - -"I am desirous of playing a fair game, madam," cried Miss Hoppner. - -"And I am not desirous of playing any game, fair or otherwise," said -Peggy. "Lud, Miss Hoppner, do you fancy that 't is my duty to prevent the -straying of the lovers of the ladies of Mr. Garrick's company? I vow, -I took upon me no such responsibility; I should have no time for my -meals." - -The woman whom she addressed looked at her with flashing eyes, her hands -tightly clenched, and her teeth set, for some moments. Once her lips -parted; she seemed about to speak; but with an evident struggle she -restrained herself. Then the fierce light in her eyes flamed into scorn. - -"Words were wasted on such a creature," she said in a whisper, that had -something of a hiss in its tone, as she walked away. - -Peggy laughed somewhat stridently, and cried: - -"Excellently spoke, beyond doubt. The woman will be an actress yet." - -Not a word of complaint had Garrick reason for uttering in regard to -the rehearsal of the scene in the tragedy, this day, and on their way -homewards, he remarked to Peggy, smilingly: - -"Perhaps in the future, my dear Peggy, you will acknowledge that I know -something of the art and methods of acting, though you did not hesitate -to join with Mr. Johnson in calling my theories fantastic." - -"Perhaps I may," said Peggy, quietly; "but just now I protest that I -have some qualms." - -"Qualms? Qualms? An actress with qualms!" cried Garrick. "What a comedy -could be written on that basis! 'The Actress with Qualms; or, Letting I -Dare Not wait upon I Would!' Pray, madam, do your qualms arise from -the reflection that you have contributed to the success of a sister -actress?" - -"The tragedy has not yet been played," said Peggy. "It were best not -to talk of the success of an actress in a play until the play has been -acted." - -That night, Mrs. Woffington occupied a box in the theater, and by her -side was Captain Joycelyn. Miss Hoppner was in a box opposite, and by -her side was her mother. - -On Monday, Peggy greeted her quite pleasantly as she came upon the stage -to rehearse the tragedy; but she returned the greeting with a glance of -scorn, far more fierce than any which, in the character of Oriana, she -had yet cast at her rival in the scenes of the play. Peggy's mocking -face and the merry laugh in which she indulged did not cause the other -to abate any of her fierceness; but when the great scene was rehearsed -for the last time previous to the performance, Mrs. Woffington became -aware of the fact that, not only was Miss Hoppner's representation of -the passionate jealousy of the one woman real, but her own expression -of fear, on the part of the other woman when she saw the flash of the -dagger, was also real. With an involuntary cry she shrank back before -the wild eyes of the actress, who approached her with the stealthy -movement of a panther measuring its distance for a spring at the throat -of its victim. - -Garrick complimented both ladies at the close of the scene, but they -both seemed too overcome to acknowledge his compliments. - -"By my soul, Peggy," said Garrick, when they met at the house in Bow -street, "you have profited as much by your teaching of that woman as -she has. The expression upon your face to-day as she approached you gave -even me a thrill. The climax needed such a cry as you uttered, though -that fool of a poet did not provide for it." - -She did not respond until some moments had passed, and then she merely -said: - -"Where are we to end, Davy, if we are to bring real and not simulated -passion to our aid at the theater? Heavens, sir! we shall be in a pretty -muddle presently. Are we to cultivate our hates and our jealousies and -our affections for the sake of exhibiting them in turn?" - -"'T would not be convenient to do so," said Garrick. "Still, you have -seen how much can be done by an exhibition of the real, and not the -simulated passion." - -"Depend upon it, sir, if you introduce the real passions into the acting -of a tragedy you will have a real and not a simulated tragedy on the -stage." - -"Psha! that is the thought of--a woman," said Garrick. "A woman seeks to -carry an idea to its furthest limits; she will not be content to accept -it within its reasonable limitations." - -"And, being a woman,'tis my misfortune to think as a woman," said Mrs. -Woffington. - -The theatre was crowded on the evening when "Oriana" appeared for the -first time on the bills. Garrick had many friends, and so also had -Margaret Woffington. The appearance of either in a new character -was sufficient to fill the theatre, but in "Oriana" they were both -appearing, and the interest of playgoers had been further stimulated by -the rumors which had been circulated respecting the ability of the new -actress whom Garrick had brought from the country. - -When the company assembled in the green-room, Garrick gave all his -attention to Miss Hoppner. He saw how terribly nervous she was. Not for -a moment would she remain seated. She paced the room excitedly, -every now and again casting a furtive glance in the direction of Mrs. -Woffington, who was laughing with Macklin in a corner. - -"You have no cause for trepidation, my dear lady," said Garrick to Miss -Hoppner. - -[Illustration: 0155] - -"Your charm of person will make you a speedy favorite with the -playgoers, and if you act the stabbing scene as faithfully as you did at -the last two rehearsals your success will be assured." - -"I can but do my best, sir," said the actress. "I think you will find -that I shall act the stabbing scene with great effect." - -"I do not doubt it," said Garrick. "Your own friends in the boxes will -be gratified." - -"I have no friends in the boxes, sir," said the actress. - -"Nay, surely I heard of at least one--a certain officer in the Royal -Scots," whispered Garrick. - -"I know of none such, sir," replied the actress, fixing her eyes, half -closed, upon Peg Woffington, who was making a jest at Macklin's expense -for the members of the company in the neighbourhood. - -"Surely I heard--," continued Garrick, but suddenly checked himself. -"Ah, I recollect now what I heard," he resumed, in a low tone. "Alas! -Peggy is a sad coquette, but I doubt not that the story of your -conquests will ring through the town after to-night." - -She did not seem to hear him. Her eyes were fixed upon Peggy Woffington, -and in another moment the signal came that the curtain was ready to -rise. - -Garrick and Macklin went on the stage together, the former smiling in a -self-satisfied way. - -"I think I have made it certain that she will startle the house in at -least one scene," he whispered to Macklin. - -"Ah, that is why Peggy is so boisterous," said Macklin. "'Tis only when -she is over-nervous that she becomes boisterous. Peggy is beginning to -feel that she may have a rival." - -But if Peggy was nervous she certainly did not suggest it by her acting. -She had not many opportunities for displaying her comedy powers in the -play, but she contrived to impart a few touches of humour to the love -scenes in the first act, which brightened up the gloom of the tragedy, -and raised the spirits of the audience in some measure. Her mature style -contrasted very effectively with the efforts of Miss Hoppner, who showed -herself to be excessively nervous, and thereby secured at once the -sympathies of the house. It was doubtful which of the two obtained the -larger share of applause. - -At the end of the act, Captain Joycelyn was waiting at the back of the -stage to compliment Peggy upon her acting. Miss Hoppner brushed past -them on her way to her dressing-room, without deigning to recognise -either. - -Curiously enough, in the next act the position of the two actresses -seemed to be reversed. It was Mrs. Woffington who was nervous, whereas -Miss Hoppner was thoroughly self-possessed. - -"What in the world has come over you, my dear?" asked Garrick, when -Peggy had made an exit so rapidly as to cause the latter half of one of -her lines to be quite inaudible. - -"God knows what it is!" said Peggy. "I have felt all through the act -as if I were going to break down--as if I wanted to run away from an -impending calamity. By heaven, sir, I feel as if the tragedy were real -and not simulated!" - -"Psha! You are but a woman, after all," said Garrick. - -"I fear that is the truth," said she. "Good God! that woman seems to -have changed places with me. She is speaking her lines as if she had -been acting in London for years. She is doing what she pleases with the -house." - -Garrick had to leave her to go through his great scene with the Oriana -of the play, and Mrs. Woffington watched, as if spell-bound, the -marvellous variety of his emotional expression, as, in the character of -the Prince Orsino, he confessed to Oriana that he no longer loved her, -but that he had given his heart to Francesca. She saw the gleam in the -eyes of the actress of the part of the jealous woman as she denounced -the perfidy of her lover, and bade him leave her presence. Then came -Oriana's long soliloquy, in which she swore that the Prince should never -taste the happiness which he had sought at her expense. - - "I have a heart for murder, murder, murder! - - My blood now surges like an angry sea, - - Eager to grapple with its struggling prey, - - And strangle it, as I shall strangle her, - - With these hands hungering for her shapely - - throat, - - The throat on which his kisses have been flung. - - Give her to me, just God, give her to me, - - But for the time it takes to close my hand - - Thus, and if justice reign supreme above, - - The traitress shall come hither to her doom." - -(_Enter Francesca._) - -(_Aside_) "My prayer is answered. It is Jove's decree." So the passage -ran, and it was delivered by the actress with a fervour that thrilled -the house. - -After her aside, Oriana turned, according to the stage directions, to -Francesca with a smile. In Miss Hoppner's eyes there was a light -of triumph--of gratified revenge--and before it Margaret Woffington -quailed. She gave a frightened glance around, as if looking for a way of -escape; there was a little pause, and then upon the silence of the -house there fell the half-hissed words of Oriana as she craned her head -forward facing her rival: - - "Thou think'st to ride in triumph o'er my - - corse-- - - The corse which his indecent feet have spurned - - Into the dust. But there's a God above! - - I tell thee, traitress,'t is not I shall lie - - For vulture-beaks to rend--but thou--thou-- - - thou! - - Traitress abhorred, this knife shall find thy - - heart!" - -"My God! the dagger--it is real!" shrieked Peggy; but before she could -turn to fly, the other had sprung upon her, throwing her partly over a -couch, and holding her down by the throat while she stabbed her twice. - -A hoarse cry came from Peg Woffington, and then she rolled off the couch -and fell limply to the stage, the backs of her hands rapping helplessly -on the boards as she fell. - -The other actress stood over her for a moment with a smile; then she -looked strangely at the dagger which glistened in her hand. Then, with a -hysterical cry, she flung the weapon from her and fell back. - -The curtain went down upon the roar of applause that came from every -part of the theatre. But though the applause was maintained, neither of -the actresses responded to the call. Several minutes had passed before -Garrick himself appeared and made a sign that he wished to speak. When -the house became silent, he explained to his patrons that both actresses -had swooned through the great demands which the scene had made upon -them, and would be unable to appear for the rest of the evening. Under -these melancholy circumstances, he hoped that no objection would be made -to the bringing on of the burletta immediately. - -The audience seemed satisfied to forego the enjoyment of the ghost -scenes of the tragedy, and the burletta was proceeded with. - -It was not thought advisable to let the audience know that Mrs. -Woffington was lying on a couch in her dressing room, while a surgeon -was binding up a wound made in her side by the dagger used by the -other actress. It was not until Garrick had examined the weapon that he -perceived it was not a stage blade, but a real one, which had been used -by Miss Hoppner. Fortunately, however, the point had been turned aside -by the steel in Peg Woffington's stays, so that it had only inflicted a -flesh wound. - -In the course of a couple of hours Peggy had recovered consciousness, -and, though very weak, was still able to make an effort to captivate -the surgeon with her witty allusions to the privileges incidental to his -profession. She was so engaged, when Garrick entered the room and told -her that Miss Hoppner was weeping outside the door, but that he had -given orders that she was not to be admitted. - -"Why should the poor girl not be admitted?" cried Peggy. "Should such -an accident as that which happened be treated as though it were murder? -Send her into the room, sir, and leave us alone together." - -Garrick protested, but Peggy insisted on having her own way, and the -moment Miss Hoppner was permitted to enter, she flung herself on her -knees at the side of the couch, weeping upon the hand that Peggy gave to -her. - -When Garrick entered with Captain Joycelyn, a short time afterwards, -Peggy would not allow him to remain in the room. The Captain remained, -however, for some minutes, and when he left, Miss Hoppner was on his -arm. They crossed the stage together, and that was the last time she -ever trod that or any other stage, for Captain Joycelyn married her -within a month. - -"Ah, friend Davy," cried Peggy to Garrick, "there was, after all, some -sense in what Mr. Johnson said. We actors are, doubtless, great folk; -but 't were presumptuous to attempt to turn Nature into the handmaid -of Art. I have tried it, sir, and was only saved from disaster by -the excellence of the art of my stays-maker. Nay, the stage is not -Nature--it is but Nature seen on the surface of a mirror; and even then, -I protest, only when David Garrick is the actor, and Shakespeare's the -poet." - - - - -THE MUSE OF TRAGEDY - - -I - -Madam," said Mr. Daly, the manager, in his politest style, "no one -could regret the occurrence more than myself"--he pronounced the word -"meself"--"especially as you say it has hurt your feelings. Do n't -I know what feelings are?"--he pronounced the word "failings," which -tended in some measure to alter the effect of the phrase, though his -friends would have been inclined to assert that its accuracy was not -thereby diminished. - -"I have been grossly insulted, sir," said Mrs. Siddons. - -"Grossly insulted," echoed Mr. Siddons. He played the part of echo to -his stately wife very well indeed. - -"And it took place under your roof, sir," said the lady. - -"Your roof," echoed the husband. - -"And there's no one in the world sorrier than myself for it," said Mr. -Daly. "But I do n't think that you should take a joke of the college -gentlemen so seriously." - -"Joke?" cried Mrs. Siddons, with a passion that caused the manager, -in the instinct of self-preservation to jump back. "Joke, sir!--a joke -passed upon Sarah Siddons! My husband, sir, whose honour I have ever -upheld as dearer to me than life itself, will tell you that I am not -accustomed to be made the subject of ribald jests." - -"I do n't know the tragedy that that quotation is made from," remarked -Mr. Daly, taking out his snuff-box and tapping it, affecting a coolness -which he certainly was far from possessing; "but if it's all written -in that strain I'll bring it out at Smock Alley and give you an extra -benefit. You never spoke anything better than that phrase. Pray let us -have it again, madam--'my husband, sir,' and so forth." - -Mrs. Siddons rose slowly and majestically. Her eyes flashed as she -pointed a shapely forefinger to the door of the greenroom, saying in her -deepest tones: - -"Sir! degrade the room no longer by your presence. You have yet to know -Sarah Siddons." - -"Sarah Siddons," murmured the husband very weakly. He would have liked -to maintain the stand taken up by his wife, but he had his fears that -to do so would jeopardise the success of his appearance at the manager's -treasury, and Mr. Siddons now and again gave people to understand that -he could not love his wife so well loved he not the treasury more. - -Mr. Daly laughed. - -"Faith, Mrs. Siddons," said he, "'t is a new thing for a man to be -ordered out of his own house by a guest. I happen to be the owner of -this tenement in Smock Alley, in the city of Dublin, and you are my -guest--my honoured guest, madam. How could I fail to honour a lady who, -in spite of the fact of being the greatest actress in the world, is -still a pattern wife and mother?" - -Mrs. Siddons was visibly softening under the balmy brogue of the -Irishman. - -"It is because I am sensible of my duties to my husband and my children -that I feel the insult the more, sir," she said, in a tone that was -still tragic. - -"Sure I know that that's what makes the sting of it so bitter," said Mr. -Daly, shaking his head sadly. "It's only the truly virtuous, madam, that -have feelings"--again he pronounced the word "failings." - -"Enough, madam," he continued, after he had flourished his handkerchief -and had wiped away an imaginary tear. "Enough! In the name of the -citizens of Dublin I offer you the humblest apology in my power for -the gross misconduct of that scoundrel in the pit who called out, 'Well -done, Sally, my jewel!' after your finest soliloquy; and I promise you -that if we can find the miscreant we shall have him brought to justice." - -"If you believe that the citizens of Dublin are really conscious of the -stigma which they shall bear for ages to come for having insulted one -whose virtue has, I rejoice to say, been ever beyond reproach, I will -accept your apology, sir," said Mrs. Siddons with dignity. - -"I 'll undertake to swear that the citizens feel the matter quite as -deeply as I do, Mrs. Siddons," cried Mr. Daly, with both his hands -clasped over his waistcoat. "I dare swear that they do not even now know -the enormity of your virtue, madam. It will be my pleasing duty to -make them acquainted with it; and so, madam, I am your grateful, humble -servant." - -With a low bow he made his escape from the green-room, leaving Mrs. -Sid-dons seated on a high chair in precisely the attitude which she -assumed when she sat for the Tragic Muse of Reynolds. - -"Thank heavens that 's over!" muttered the manager, as he hurried down -Smock Alley to the tavern at the corner kept by an old actor named -Barney Rafferty, and much frequented by the Trinity College students, -who in the year 1783 were quite as enthusiastic theatre-goers as their -successors are in the present year. - -"For the love of heaven, Barney, give us a jorum," cried Daly, as he -entered the bar parlor. "A jorum of punch, Barney, for I 'm as dry as -a lime kiln, making speeches in King Cambyses' vein to that Queen of -Tragedy." - -"It'll be at your hand in a minute, Mr. Daly, sir," said Barney, -hurrying off. - -In the parlour were assembled a number of the "college boys," as the -students were always called in Dublin. They greeted the arrival of their -friend Daly with acclamation, only they wanted to know what had occurred -to detain him so long at the theatre. - -"Delay and Daly have never been associated before now when there's a -jorum of punch in view," remarked young Mr. Blenerhassett of Limerick, -who was reported to have a very pretty wit. - -"It's lucky you see me among you at all, boys," said the manager, wiping -his brow. "By the powers, I might have remained in the green-room all -night listening to homilies on the virtue of wives and the honour of -husbands." - -"And 't is yourself that would be nothing the worse for listening to a -homily or two on such topics," remarked young Blake of Connaught. "And -who was the preacher of the evening, Daly?" - -"None else than the great Sarah herself, my boy," replied the manager. -"Saint Malachi! what did you mean by shouting out what you did, after -that scene?" he added. - -"What did I shout?" asked Jimmy Blake. "I only ventured humbly to cry, -'Well done, Sally, my jewel'--what offence is there in that?" - -"Ay, by Saint Patrick, but there's much offence in 't," cried Daly. -"Mrs. Siddons sent for me to my dressing-room after the play, and -there I found her pacing the green-room like a lioness in her cage, -her husband, poor man, standing by as tame as the keeper of the royal -beast." - -A series of interested exclamations passed round the room, and the -circle of heads about the table became narrower. "Mother o' Moses! She -objected to my civil words of encouragement?" said Mr. Blake. - -"She declared that not only had she been insulted, but her husband's -honour had been dragged in the mire, and her innocent children's names -had been sullied." - -"Faith, that was a Sally for you, Mr. Daly," said young Home, the Dublin -painter to whom Mrs. Siddons had refused to sit, assuring him that she -could only pay such a compliment to Sir Joshua Reynolds. - -"Boys, may this be my poison if I ever put in a worse half hour," cried -Daly, as he raised a tumbler of punch and swallowed half the contents. - -"I 'd give fifty pounds to have been there," said Home. "Think what a -picture it would make!--the indignant Sarah, the ever courteous manager -Daly, and the humble husband in the corner. What would not posterity pay -for such a picture!" - -"A guinea in hand is worth a purse in the future," said one of the -college boys. "I wish I could draw a bill on posterity for the payment -of the silversmith who made my buckles." - -"Daly," said Blake, "you're after playing a joke on us. Sally never took -you to task for what I shouted from the Pit." - -Mr. Daly became dignified--he had finished the tumbler of punch. He drew -himself up, and, with one hand thrust into his waistcoat, he said: -"Sir, I conceive that I understand as well as any gentleman present -what constitutes the elements of a jest. I have just conveyed to you -a statement of facts, sir. If you had seen Sarah Siddons as I left -her--egad, she is a very fine woman--you would n't hint that there was -much jest in the matter. Oh, lord, boys"--another jug of punch had just -been brought in, and the manager was becoming genial once more--"Oh, -lord, you should have heard the way she talked about the honour of her -husband, as if there never had been a virtuous woman on the boards until -Sarah Siddons arose!" - -"And was there one, Daly?" asked young Murphy, a gentleman from whom -great things were expected by his college and his creditors. - -"There was surely, my boy," said Daly, "but I've forgot her name. The -name's not to the point. I tell you, then, the Siddons stormed in the -stateliest blank verse and periods, about how she had elevated the -stage--how she had checked Brereton for clasping her as she thought too -ardently--how she had family prayers every day, and looked forward to -the day when she could afford a private chaplain." - -"Stop there," shouted Blake. "You'll begin to exaggerate if you go -beyond the chaplain, Daly." - -"It's the truth I've told so far, at any rate, barring the chaplain," -said Daly. - -"And all because I saw she was a bit nervous and did my best to -encourage her and give her confidence by shouting, 'Well done, Sally!'" -said Blake. "Boys, it's not Sarah Siddons that has been insulted, it's -Trinity College--it's the city of Dublin! by my soul, it's the Irish -nation that she has insulted by supposing them capable of insulting a -woman." - -"Faith, there 's something in that, Jimmy," said half a dozen voices. - -"Who is this Sarah Siddons, will ye tell me, for I 'd like to know?" -resumed Blake, casting a look of almost painful enquiry round the room. - -"Ay, that 's the question," said Daly, in a tone that he invariably -reserved for the soliloquy which flourished on the stage a century ago. - -"We 're all gentlemen here," resumed Mr. Blake. - -"And that 's more than she is," said young Blenerhassett of Limerick. - -"Gentlemen," said the manager, "I beg that you'll not forget that -Mrs. Siddons and myself belong to the same profession. I cannot suffer -anything derogatory"--the word gave him some trouble, but he mastered -it after a few false starts--"to the stage to be uttered in this -apartment." - -"You adorn the profession, sir," said Blake. "But can the same be said -of Mrs. Siddons? What could Garrick make of her, gentlemen?" - -"Ahem! we know what he failed to make of her," said Digges, the actor, -who sat in the corner, and was supposed to have more Drury Lane scandal -on his fingers' ends than Daly himself. - -"Pooh!" sneered Daly. "Davy Garrick never made love to her, Digges. It -was her vanity that tried to make out that he did." - -"He did not make her a London success--that's certain," said Blake. -"And though Dublin, with the assistance of the College, can pronounce a -better judgment on an actor or actress than London, still we must admit -that London is improving, and if there had been any merit in Sarah -Siddons she would not have been forced to keep to the provinces as she -does now. Gentlemen, she has insulted us and it's our duty to teach her -a lesson." - -"And we're the boys to do it," said one Moriarty. - -"Gentlemen, I 'll take my leave of you," said the manager, rising with a -little assistance and bowing to the company. "It's not for me to dictate -any course for you to pursue. I do n't presume to ask to be let into any -of your secrets; I only beg that you will remember that Mrs. Siddons -has three more nights to appear in my theatre, and she grasps so large -a share of the receipts that, unless the house continues to be crowded, -it's a loser I'll be at the end of the engagement. You'll not do -anything that will jeopardise the pit or the gallery--the boxes are -sure--for the rest of the week." - -"Trust to us, sir, trust to us," said Jimmy Blake, as the manager -withdrew. "Now, boys," he continued in a low voice, bending over the -table, "I've hit upon a way of convincing this fine lady that has taken -the drama under her wing, so to speak, that she can't play any of her -high tragedy tricks here, whatever she may do at Bath. She does n't -understand us, boys; well, we'll teach her to." - -"Bravo, Jimmy!" - -"The Blake's Country and the sky over it!" - -"Give us your notions," came several voices from around the table. - -"She bragged of her respectability; of her armour of virtue, Daly told -us. Well, suppose we put a decent coat on Dionysius Hogan and send him -to propose an elopement to her to-morrow; how would that do for a joke -when it gets around the town?" - -"By the powers, boys, whether or not Dionysius gets kicked down the -stairs, she'll be the laughing-stock of the town. It's a genius"--he -pronounced it "jan-yus"--"that you are, Jimmy, and no mistake," cried -young Moriarty. - -"We'll talk it over," said Jimmy. And they did talk it over. - - -II - -Dionysius Hogan was a celebrated character in Dublin during the -last quarter of the eighteenth century. The Irish capital has always -cherished curious characters, for pretty much the same reason that -caused badgers to be preserved; any man, or, for that matter, any woman, -who was only eccentric enough, could depend on the patronage of the -people of Dublin. Dionysius Hogan afforded his fellow-citizens many a -laugh on account of his numerous eccentricities. He was a man of about -fifty years of age, but his great anxiety was to appear thirty years -younger; and he fancied he accomplished this aim by wearing in 1783 the -costume of 1750, only in an exaggerated form. His chief hallucination -was that several of the best known ladies in society were in love with -him, and that it was necessary for him to be very careful lest he -should compromise himself by a correspondence with some of those who had -husbands. - -[Illustration: 0186] - -It need scarcely be said that this idea of his was not greatly -discouraged by the undergraduates of Trinity College. It was not their -fault if he did not receive every week a letter from some distinguished -lady begging the favor of an interview with him. Upon many occasions the -communications, which purported to come from married ladies, took the -form of verses. These he exhibited with great pride, and only after -extorting promises of profound secrecy, to his student friends. - -It was immaterial that Dionysius found almost every week that he had -been the victim of practical jokes; his belief in his own powers of -captivating womankind was superior to every rebuff that he encountered. -He exhibited his dapper little figure, crowned with the wig of a -macaroni, to the promenaders in all the chief thoroughfares daily, -and every evening he had some fresh story to tell of how he had been -exerting himself to avoid an assignation that was being urged on him by -a lady of quality sojourning not a hundred miles from the Castle. - -The scheme which Mr. Blake had suggested to his fellow-students in -the Smock Alley tavern found a willing agent for its realisation in -Dionysius Hogan. Mrs. Siddons, her beauty and her powers, were, of -course, the talk of the town during her first visit to Dublin. It only -needed Jimmy Blake to drop a few dark hints in the hearing of Dionysius -on the subject of a rumor that was current, to the effect that a certain -well-known gentleman in Dublin had attracted the attention of the great -actress, to make Dionysius believe that he had made a conquest of the -Siddons. - -For the remainder of the evening he took to dropping dark hints to this -effect, and before he had slept that night there was no doubt on his -mind that Sarah Sid-dons was another lady who had succumbed to his -attractive exterior. To be sure, he had heard it said that she was as -hard as marble; but then she had not seen him until she had come to -Dublin. All women, he believed, had their weak moments, and there was no -article of his creed more strongly impressed upon him than that the weak -moment of many women was when they saw him for the first time. - -When, on descending from his bedroom to his little sitting-room in his -humble lodgings--for Mr. Hogan's income did not exceed eighty pounds a -year--a letter was put into his hand bearing the signature "S. S.," and -when he found that above these initials there was a passionate avowal -of affection and a strong appeal to him to be merciful as he was strong, -and to pay the writer a visit at her lodgings before the hour of one, -"when Mr. S. returns from the theatre, where he goes every forenoon," -poor Dionysius felt that the time had at last come for him to cast -discretion to the winds. The beauty of Mrs. Siddons had had a powerful -effect upon his susceptible heart when she had first come before his -eyes on the stage of the Smock Alley theatre. - -[Illustration: 0192] - -On that night he believed that she had kept her eyes fixed upon him -while repeating some of the beautiful soliloquies in "Isabella." The -artful suggestions of Jimmy Blake had had their effect upon him, and now -he held in his hand a letter that left him no room to doubt--even if he -had been inclined that way--the accuracy of the tale that his poor heart -had originally told him. - -He dressed himself with his accustomed care, and, having deluged his -cambric with civet--it had been the favourite scent of thirty years -before--he indulged in the unusual luxury of a chair to convey him to -the lodgings of the great actress; for he felt that it might seriously -jeopardise his prospects to appear in the presence of the lady with -soiled shoes. - -The house where Mrs. Siddons lodged was not an imposing one. She had -arrived in Dublin from Holyhead at two o'clock in the morning, and -she was compelled to walk about the streets in a downpour of rain for -several hours before she could prevail upon any one to take her in. -It is scarcely surprising that she conceived a strong and enduring -prejudice against Dublin and its inhabitants. - -On enquiring in a whisper and with a confidential smirk for Mrs. -Siddons, he learned from the maid servant that the lady was in her room, -and that Mr. Siddons had not returned from his morning visit to the -theatre. The servant stated, however, that Mrs. Siddons had given the -strictest orders to admit no one into her presence. - -"Ah, discreet as one might have expected," murmured Dionysius. "She does -not mean to run the chance of disappointing me. Which is her parlour, -child?" - -"It's the first front, yer honour," said the girl; "but, Lord save yer -honour, she'd murther me if I let ye go up. Oh, it's joking ye are." - -"Hush," whispered Dionysius, his finger on his lips. "Not so loud, I -pray. She is waiting for me." - -"Holy Biddy! waiting for yer?" cried the maid. "Now do n't be afther -getting a poor colleen into throuble, sir. I'm telling ye that it's -killed entirely I'd be if I let ye go up." - -"Do n't be a fool, girl," said Dionysius, still speaking in a whisper. -"I give you my word of honour as a gentleman that Mrs. Siddons is -awaiting me. Zounds! why do I waste time talking to a menial? Out of my -way, girl." - -He pushed past the servant, leaving her somewhat awe-stricken at his -grand manner and his finery, and when she recovered and made a grab for -his coat tails, he was too quick for her. He plucked them out of her -reach, and she perceived that he had got such a start of her that -pursuit would be useless. In a few moments he was standing before the -door of the room on the first floor that faced the street. - -His heart was fluttering so that he had scarcely courage to tap upon the -panel. He had tapped a second time before that grand contralto, that -few persons could hear without emotion, bade him enter. He turned the -handle, and stood facing Mrs. Siddons. - -[Illustration: 0197] - -She was sitting in a gracefully majestic attitude by the side of a small -table on which a desk was placed. Mrs. Siddons never unbent for a moment -in private life. - -She assumed majestic attitudes in the presence of the lodging-house -servant, and spoke in a tragic contralto to the linen-draper's -apprentice. She turned her lovely eyes upon Dionysius Hogan as he stood -smirking and bowing at the door. There was a vista of tragedy in the -delivery of the two words-- - -"Well, sir?" - -It took him some moments to recover from the effect the words produced -upon him. He cleared his throat--it was somewhat husky--and with an -artificial smirk he piped out: - -"Madam--ah, my charmer, I have rushed to clasp my goddess to my bosom! -Ah, fair creature, who could resist your appeal?" - -He advanced in the mincing gait of the Macaronis. She sprang to her -feet. She pointed an eloquent forefinger at a spot on the floor directly -in front of him. - -"Wretch," she cried, "advance a step at your peril!" Her eyes were -flashing, and her lips were apart. - -His mincing ceased abruptly; and only the ghost of a smirk remained upon -his patched and painted face. It was in a very fluty falsetto that he -said: - -"Ah, I see my charmer wants to be wooed. But why should Amanda reproach -her Strephon for but obeying her behests? Wherefore so coy, dear nymph? -Let these loving arms--" - -"Madman--wretch--" - -"Nay, chide me not, dear one. 'T is but the ardour of my passion that -bids me clasp thee, the fairest of Hebe's train. We shall fly together -to some retreat--far from the distractions--" - -"Oh, the man is mad--mad!" cried the lady, retreating a step or two as -he advanced. - -"Only mad with the ardour of my passion," whispered Dionysius. - -"Oh, heaven! that I should live to hear such words spoken in my -presence!" cried Mrs. Siddons, with her hands clasped in passionate -appeal to a smiling portrait of the landlady's husband that hung over -the fireplace. Then she turned upon Dionysius and looked at him. - -Her eyes blazed. Their fire consumed the unfortunate man on whom they -rested. He felt himself shrivelled up and become crisp as an autumn -leaf. He certainly trembled like one, as a terrible voice, but no louder -than a whisper, sounded in his ears: "Are you a human being or the -monster of a dream, that you dare to speak such words in my hearing? -What wretch are you that fancies that Sarah Siddons may be addressed -by such as you, and in language that is an insult to a pure wife and -mother. I am Sarah Siddons, sir! I am a wife who holds her husband's -honour dearer than life itself--I am a mother who will never cause a -blush of shame to mantle the brow of one of her children. Wretch, -insulter, why are mine eyes not basilisks, with death in their glance -to such as you?" - -Down went Dionysius on his knees before that terrible figure that -stretched out wild quivering hands above his head. Such gestures as hers -would have fitted the stage of Drury Lane. - -In the lodging-house parlour they were overwhelming. - -"For God's sake, spare me, spare me!" he faltered, with his hands -clasped and his head bent before that fury. - -"Why should I spare such a wretch--why should I not trample such a worm -into the dust?" - -She took a frantic step toward him. With a short cry of abject terror he -fell along the floor, and gasped. It seemed to him that she had trampled -the life out of his body. - -She stood above him with a heaving bosom beneath her folded arms. - -There was a long pause before he heard the door open. A weight seemed -lifted off him. He found that he could breathe. In a few moments he -ventured to raise his head. He saw a beautiful figure sitting at the -desk writing. Even in the scratching of her pen along the paper there -was a tone of tragedy. - -He crawled backward upon his hands and knees, with his eyes furtively -fixed upon that figure at the desk. If, when he had looked up he had -found her standing with an arm outstretched tin the direction of the -door, he felt that he would have been able to rise to his feet and leave -her presence; but Mrs. Siddons' dramatic instinct caused her to produce -a deeper impression upon him by simply treating him as if he were dead -at her feet--as if she had, indeed, trampled the life out of his body. - -He crept away slowly and painfully backward, until he was actually in -the lobby. Then by a great effort he sprang to his feet, rushed headlong -down the stairs, picked himself up in the hall, and fled wildly through -the door, that chanced to be open, into the street. He overthrew a -chairman in his wild flight, and as he turned the corner he went with a -rush into the arms of a young man, who, with a few others by his side, -was sauntering along. - -[Illustration: 0205] - -"Zounds, sir! what do you mean by this mode of progression?" cried the -young man, holding him fast. - -Dionysius grasped him limply, looking at him with wild, staring eyes. - -"For God's sake, Mr. Blake, save me from her--do n't let her get hold of -me, for the love of all the saints." - -"What do you mean, you fool?" said Jimmy Blake. "Who is anxious to get -hold of you?" - -But no answer was returned by poor Dionysius. He lay with his head over -Blake's shoulder, his arms swaying limply like two pendulums. - -"By the powers, he has gone off in a swoon," said young Blenerhassett. -"Let us carry him to the nearest tavern." - -In less than half an hour Dionysius had recovered consciousness; but -it required a longer space of time, and the administration of a -considerable quantity of whisky, to enable him to tell all his story. He -produced the letter signed "S. S." which he had received in the morning, -and explained that he had paid the visit to Mrs. Siddons only with a -view of reasoning her out of her infatuation, which, he said with a -shadowy simper, he could not encourage. - -"I had hardly obtained access to her when she turned upon me in a fury," -said he. "Ah, boys, those eyes of hers!--I feel them still upon me. They -made me feel like a poor wretch that's marched out in front of a platoon -to be shot before breakfast. And her voice! well, it sounded like the -voice of the officer giving the word of command to the platoon to fire. -When I lay ready to expire at her feet, every word that she spoke had -the effect of a bayonet prod upon my poor body. Oh, Lord! oh, Lord! I'll -leave it to yourself, Mr. Blake: was it generous of her to stab me with -cold steel after I was riddled with red-hot bullets?" - -"I'm sorry to say, Mr. Hogan," replied Blake, "that I can't take a -lenient view of your conduct. We all know what you are, sir. You seek -to ingraft the gallantries of the reign of his late Majesty upon the -present highly moral age. Mrs. Siddons, sir, is a true wife and mother, -besides being a most estimable actress, and you deserved the rebuff from -the effects of which you are now suffering. Sir, we leave you to the -gnawings of that remorse which I trust you feel acutely." - -Mr. Blake, with his friends, left the tavern room as Dionysius was -beginning to whimper. - -In the street a roar of laughter burst from the students. - -"Mother o' Moses!" cried Moriarty. "'T is a golden guinea I'd give to -have been present when the Siddons turned upon the poor devil." - -"Then I 'll give you a chance of being present at a better scene than -that," said Blake. - -"What do you mean, Jimmy?" asked Moriarty. - -"I mean to bring you with me to pay a visit to Mrs. Siddons this very -minute." - -"'T is joking you are, Jimmy?" - -"Oh, the devil a joke, ma bouchai! Man alive, can't you see that the fun -is only beginning? We'll go to her in a body and make it out that she -has insulted a friend of ours by attributing false motives to him, and -that her husband must come out to the Park in the morning." - -"That's carrying a joke a bit too far," said Mr. Blenerhassett. "I'll -not join in with you there." - -"Nobody axed ye, sir," said Blake. "There are three of us here without -you, and that's enough for our purpose." - -"If Mr. Siddons kicks you into the street, or if Sally treats you as she -did that poor devil in the tavern,'t is served right that you'll be," -said Blenerhassett, walking off. - -"We'll have a scene with Sarah Siddons for our trouble, at any rate," -laughed Blake. - -The three young men who remained when the more scrupulous youth had -departed, went together to Mrs. Siddons' lodgings. They understood more -than Dionysius did about the art of obtaining admittance when only a -portress stood in the way--a squeeze, a kiss, and a crown combined to -make the maid take a lenient view of the consequences of permitting them -to go up the stairs. - -When, after politely rapping at the door of the parlour, the three -entered the room, they found the great actress in precisely the same -attitude she had assumed for her last visitor. The dignity of her -posture was not without its effect upon the young men. They were not -quite so self-confident as they had been outside the door. Each of them -looked at the other, so to speak; but somehow none of the three appeared -to be fluent. They stood bowing politely, keeping close to the door. - -"Who are these persons?" said Mrs. Siddons, as if uttering her thoughts. -"Am I in a civilised country or not?" - -"Madam," said Blake, finding his voice, at last, when a slur was cast -upon his country. "Madam, Ireland was the home of civilisation when the -inhabitants of England were prowling the woods naked, except for a coat -of paint." - -Mrs. Siddons sprang to her feet. - -"Sir," she cried, "you are indelicate as well as impertinent. You have -no right to intrude upon me without warning." - -"The urgency of our mission is our excuse, madam," said Blake. "The fact -is, madam, to come to the point, the gentleman who visited you just now -is our friend." - -"Your friend, sir, is a scoundrel. He grossly insulted me," said Mrs. -Siddons. - -"Ah,'t is sorry I am to find you do n't yet understand the impulses of a -warmhearted nation, madam," said Blake, shaking his head. "The gentleman -came to compliment you on your acting, and yet you drove him from -your door like a hound. That, according to our warmhearted Irish ways, -constitutes an offence that must be washed out in blood--ay, blood, -madam." - -"What can be your meaning, sir?" - -"I only mean, madam, that your husband, whom we all honour on account of -the genius--we do n't deny it--the genius and virtue of his wife, will -have to meet the most expert swordsman in Ireland in the Phonix Park -in the morning, and that Sarah Siddons will be a widow before breakfast -time." - -There was a pause before there came a cry of anguish more pitiful than -any expression of emotion that the three youths had ever heard. - -"My husband!" were the words that sounded like a sob in their ears. - -Mrs. Siddons had averted her head. Her face was buried in her hands. -The wink in which Jimmy Blake indulged as he gave Moriarty a nudge was -anything but natural. - -"Why was I ever tempted to come to this country?" cried the lady wildly. - -"Madam, we humbly sympathise with you, and with the country," said -Blake. He would not allow any reflection to be cast on his country. - -She took a few steps toward the three young men, and faced them with -clasped hands. She looked into the three faces in turn, with passionate -intreaty in her eyes. "Have you no pity?" she faltered. - -"Yes," said Blake, "that we have; we do pity you heartily, madam." - -"Are you willing to take part in this act of murder--murder?" cried Mrs. -Siddons, in a low voice that caused the flesh of at least two of her -audience to creep. "Are you blind? Can 't you see the world pointing at -you as I point at you, and call you murderers?" She stood before them -with her eyes half closed, her right hand pointing to each of them in -turn as she prolonged the word, suggesting a thousand voices whispering -"murderers!" There was a long pause, during which the spell-bound -youths, their jaws fallen, stared at that terrible figure--the awful -form of the Muse of Tragedy. Drops of perspiration stood on the forehead -of young Moriarty. Blake himself gave a gasp. "Have you no compassion?" -Mrs. Sid-dons continued, but in another tone--a tone of such pathos as -no human being could hear unmoved. Clasping her hands, she cried: "My -poor husband! What harm has he done? Is he to be dragged from these -arms--these arms that have cherished him with all the devotion that a -too-loving wife can offer? Is he to be dragged away from this true heart -to be butchered? Sirs, we have children--tender little blossoms. Oh, -cannot you hear their cries? Listen, listen--the wailing of the babes -over the mangled body of their father." - -Surely the sound of children's sobbing went around the room. - -One of the young men dropped into a chair and burst into tears. - -Blake's lips were quivering, as the streaming eyes of the woman were -turned upon him. - -"For heaven's sake, madam!" he faltered--"for heaven's sake--oh, my God! -what have we done?--what have we done? Worse than Herod! the innocent -children!--I hear them--I hear them! Oh, God forgive us! God forgive us -for this cruel joke." - -He broke down utterly. The room now was certainly filled with wild -sobbing and the sound of convulsive weeping. - -[Illustration: 0217] - -For several minutes the three emotional Irishmen sat weeping. They were -in the power of the woman, who, at the confession of Blake, had become -perfectly self-possessed in a moment. She stood watching them, a -scornful smile upon her lips. She knew that the magic which she had at -her command could enchain them so long as she wished. She was merciful, -however. - -"If you consider your jest sufficiently successful, gentlemen," said -she, "perhaps you will oblige me by withdrawing. I have letters to -write." - -The spell that she had cast around them was withdrawn. - -Blake sprang to his feet and drew his handkerchief across his eyes. - -"Mrs. Siddons--madam," said he, "we have behaved like fools--nay, worse, -like scoundrels. We are not bold enough to ask your pardon, madam; but -believe me, we feel deeply humiliated. You may forgive us, but we shall -never forgive ourselves. Madam, you are the greatest actress in the -world, and you may expect the finest benefit ever given to an actress in -this city." - -But in spite of the fact that Mrs. Siddons' benefit the following night -was all that Mr. Blake predicted it would be, she wrote some very hard -words about Dublin to her friend, Mr. Whately, of Bath. - - - - -THE WAY TO KEEP HIM - - -I - -Nay, sir," cried Mrs. Abington, with such a smile of infinite witchery -as she wore when Sir Joshua Reynolds painted her as 'Miss Prue;' I would -not have you make any stronger love to me than is absolutely necessary -to keep yourself in training for the love scenes in Dr. Goldsmith's new -comedy." - -"Ah, you talk glibly of measuring out the exact portion of one's love, -as if love were a physic to be doled out to the precise grain," cried -Lee Lewis, impatiently turning away from the fascinating lady who was -smiling archly at him over the back of her chair. - -"By my faith, sir, you have e'en given the best description of love that -I have heard;'t is beyond doubt a physic, given to mankind to cure many -of the ills of life; but, la, sir! there are so many quacks about,'t is -well-nigh impossible to obtain the genuine thing." - -And once more the actress smiled at her latest victim. - -"I have often wondered if you ever knew what love means," said he. - -"Indeed the same thought has frequently occurred to me, sir," said the -actress. "When one has been offered the nostrums of quacks so often, one -begins to lose faith in the true prescription." - -"You think that I am a quack, and therefore have no faith in me," said -Lewis. - -"I know that you are an excellent actor, Mr. Lewis." - -"And therefore you suspect my truth?" - -"Nay, I respect your art." - -"Perish my art, so long as I gain the favour of the most adorable woman -who ever flitted like a vision of beauty--" - -"Ah, sir, do not take advantage of my lack of memory; give me the title -of the comedy from which you quote, so that I may know my cue, and have -my reply ready." - -Lewis flung himself across the room with an exclamation of impatience. - -"You are the most cruel woman that lives," he cried. "I have often left -this house vowing that I would never come nigh it again because of your -cruelty." - -"What a terrible vengeance!" cried the actress, raising her hands, while -a mock expression of terror came over her face. "You would fain prove -yourself the most cruel of men because you account me the most cruel of -women? Ah, sir, you are ungenerous; I am but a poor weak creature, while -you--" - -"I am weak enough to be your slave, but let me tell you, madam, I am -quite strong enough to throw off your bonds should I fail to be treated -with some consideration," said Lewis. - -"Oh, so far as I am concerned you may take your freedom to-morrow," -laughed Mrs. Abington. "The fetters that I weave are of silken thread." - -"I would rather wear your fetters, though they be of iron, than those -of the next loveliest woman to you, though hers should be a chain of -roses," said the actor. "Come, now, my dear lady, listen to reason." - -"Gladly; 't will be a change from your usual discourse, which is of -love--just the opposite, you know." - -"Why will you not consent to come with me to Vauxhall once more?" - -"La, sir, think of the scandal? Have not we been seen there together -half a dozen times?" - -"Scandal! Do you think that the scandal-mongers can add anything to what -they have already said regarding us?" - -"I place no limits on the imagination of the scandal-monger, sir, but -I desire to assign a limit to my own indiscretions, which, I fear, have -set tongues wagging--" - -"Pooh! my dear madam, cannot you see that tongues will wag all the -faster if I appear at the Gardens with some one else?" - -"Say, with your wife. Surely you are not afraid of the tongue of slander -if you appear by the side of your wife, sir." - -"'T is for you I fear." - -"What! you fancy that people will slander me if you appear at Vauxhall -with your lawful wedded wife?" - -"Even so, for they will say that you were not strong enough to keep me -faithful to you." - -Mrs. Abington sprang to her feet. - -"The wretches!" she cried. "I will show them that------psha! let them -say their worst. What care I what they say? I'll go or stay away, as the -fancy seizes." - -"You may take your choice, my dear madam," said Lewis: "Whether you -would rather be slandered for coming with me or for staying at home!" - -"The terms are not the same in both cases," said she; "for if I go with -you I know that I shall have an excellent supper." - -"So you 'll come! Ah, I knew that you would not forsake me!" he cried, -catching her hand and kissing it. - -"You foolish man! You take credit to yourself for a decision that is due -to the prospect of a supper!" said Mrs. Abington. - -"Ah, I know what I know, my dear," cried he. "And so I will take my -leave at once, lest you should change your mind." - -"I protest, sir," said she, as he kissed her hand again. "I protest that -'t was the thought of the supper decided me." - -He roared with laughter. - -So did she when he had left her house. - -"What fools these men are!" she cried, throwing herself back on her -couch with a very capacious yawn. "What fools! The idea of a poor woman -being influenced by the thought of minced chicken in a decision that -involves being by their side seems preposterous to them! Oh, if they but -knew all that such a woman as I am could tell them!" - -She laughed softly--subtly--as certain recollections came to her, for -Mrs. Abington was a lady of many recollections. - -After a space, she resumed her study of the part of Miss Hardcastle, -for which she had been cast by Colman in Dr. Goldsmith's new comedy, but -which, the following week, to her everlasting regret, she relinquished -in favor of Mrs. Bulkley. - -Lee Lewis, who was studying the part of Young Marlow, had accompanied -her home after rehearsal. He had, during the previous month, shown -himself to be extremely polite in regard to her, for he had walked home -with her several times, and more than once he had been seen by her side -at Ranelagh and Vauxhall, as well as at the Pantheon in the Oxford Road. -People about the theater were saying that the beautiful Mrs. Abington -had added to the number of her conquests, and Miss Catley, the most -imprudent of all the imprudent ladies in Colman's company, said some -very spiteful things regarding her. (It was understood that Miss Catley -had angled for Lee Lewis herself, but without success.) - -Before Mrs. Abington had been alone for half an hour, her maid entered -to tell her that a lady was inquiring for her at the hall door. - -"Another of our stage-struck misses, Lucette?" said the actress, -alluding to the three visits which she had had during the week from -young women who were desirous of obtaining a footing on the stage. - -"Nay, madam, this lady seems somewhat different," replied the maid. - -"Then let her be shown in at once, whoever she may be," said Mrs. -Abington. "There can surely be no scandal in receiving a lady visitor." - -She gave a glance at a mirror, and saw that her hair was in a proper -condition for a visitor who was a lady. She knew that it did not matter -so much when her visitors were of the other sex; and a moment afterwards -there entered a graceful little woman, whom she could not recollect -having ever seen before. She walked quickly to the centre of the room, -and stood there, gazing with soft grey eyes at the actress, who had -risen from her sofa, and was scrutinising her visitor. - -There was a pause before Mrs. Abington, with a smile--the smile she -reserved for women--quite different from that with which she was -accustomed to greet men--said: - -"Pray seat yourself, madam; and let me know to what I am indebted for -the honour of this visit." - -But the lady made no move; she remained there, gazing at the actress -without a word. - -Mrs. Abington gave a laugh, saying, as she returned to her sofa: - -"Do not let me hurry you, my dear lady; but I must ask your pardon if I -seat myself." Then the stranger spoke. "You are Mrs. Abington. I wish -I had not come to you. Now that I find myself face to face with you, I -perceive that I have no chance. You are overwhelmingly beautiful." - -"Did you come here only to tell me that? Faith, you might have saved -yourself the trouble, my dear. I have known just how beautiful I am for -the past twenty years," laughed the actress. - -"I did not come here to tell you that," said the visitor; "on the -contrary, I meant to call you an ugly harridan--a vile witch, who -glories in seeing the ruin of good men; but now--well, now, I am dumb. -I perceive you are so beautiful, it is only natural that all men--my -husband among the number--should worship you." - -"You are so flattering, my dear madam, I can without difficulty perceive -that you have not lived long in the world of fashion--ay, or in the -world of play-houses," said the actress. - -"I am Mrs. Lewis, madam," said the lady, and then dropping into a chair -she burst into tears. - -Mrs. Abington went beside the unhappy woman, and patted her on the -shoulder. - -"Dear child," she said, "the thought that you are Mr. Lewis's wife -should not cause you to shed a tear. You should be glad rather than -sorry that you are married to a gentleman who is so highly esteemed. -Your husband, Mrs. Lewis, is a great friend of mine, and I hope that his -wife may become even a greater." - -"Ah--ah!" moaned the lady. "A friend? a friend? Oh, give me back my -husband, woman--give me back my husband, whom you stole from me!" - -She had sprung to her feet as she spoke her passionate words, and now -stood with quivering, clenched hands in front of the actress. - -"My good woman," said Mrs. Abington, "you have need to calm yourself. -I can assure you that I have not your husband in my keeping. Would you -like to search the room? Look under the sofa--into all the cupboards." - -"I know that he left here half an hour ago--I watched him," said Mrs. -Lewis. "You watched him? Oh, fie!" - -"You may make a mock of me, if you please; I expected that you would; -but he is my husband, and I love him--I believe that he loved me until -your witchery came over him and--oh, I am a most unhappy woman! But you -will give him back to me; you have many admirers, madam; one poor man is -nothing here or there to you." - -"Listen to me, my poor child." Mrs. Abington had led her to the sofa, -and sat down beside her, still holding her hand. "You have spoken some -very foolish words since you came into this room. From whom have you -heard that your husband was--well, was ensnared by me?" - -"From whom? Why, every one knows it!" cried Mrs. Lewis. "And besides, I -got a letter that told me--" - -"A letter from whom?" - -"From--I suppose she was a lady; at any rate she said that she -sympathised with me, and I'm certain that she did." - -"Ah, the letter was not signed by her real name, and yet you believed -the slanders that you knew came from a jealous woman? Oh, Mrs. Lewis, -I'm ashamed of you." - -"Nay, I did not need to receive any letter; my husband's neglect of -me made me aware of the truth--it is the truth, whether you deny it or -not." - -"You are a silly goose, and I have half a mind to take your husband from -you, as mothers deprive their children of a toy when they injure it. -You do n't know how to treat a husband, madam, and you do n't deserve -to have one. Think how many girls, prettier and cleverer than you, are -obliged to go without husbands all their lives, poor things!" - -"It is enough for me to think of those women who are never satisfied -unless they have other women's husbands in their train, madam." - -"Look you, my dear ill-treated creature, I do assure you that I have no -designs upon your husband. I do not care if I never see him again except -on the stage." - -"Is that the truth? Ah, no, everybody says that Mrs. Abington is only -happy when--" - -"Then leave Mrs. Abington's room if you believe the statements of that -vague everybody." - -The actress had risen, and was pointing in fine tragic style to the -door. - -Mrs. Lewis rose also, but slowly; her eyes fell beneath the flashing -eyes of Mrs. Abington. Suddenly she raised her head, and put out a -trembling hand. - -"I will not believe what I have heard," she said. "And yet--yet--you are -so very beautiful." - -"That you think it impossible I should have any good in me?" laughed -the actress. "Well, I do believe that I have some good in me--not much, -perhaps, but enough to make me wish to do you a friendly turn in spite -of your impudence. Listen to me, you little goose. Why have you allowed -your husband to neglect you, and to come here asking me to sup with him -at Vauxhall?" - -"Ah, then,'t is true!" cried the wife. "You have gone with him--you are -going with him?" - -"'Tis true that I went with him, and that he left me just now believing -that I would accompany him to the Gardens on Monday next. Well, what -I want you to explain is how you have neglected your duty toward your -husband so that he should stray into such evil ways as supping with -actresses at Vauxhall." - -"What! would you make out that his neglect of his duty is my fault?" - -"Great heavens, child, whose fault is it, if it is not yours? That is -what I say, you do n't deserve to have a toy if you let some strange -child snatch it away from you." - -"I protest, Mrs. Abington, that I scarce take your meaning. I have -nothing to reproach myself with. I have ever been the best of wives. -I have never gone gadding about to balls and routs as some wives do; I -have remained at home with my baby." - -"Exactly, and so your poor husband has been forced to ask certain -actresses to bear him company at those innocent pleasures, which he, in -common with most gentlemen of distinction, enjoy. Ah,'t is you domestic -wives that will have to answer for your husbands' backslidings." - -"Is it possible that--why, madam, you bewilder me. You think that I -should--I do n't know what you think--oh, I'm quite bewildered!" - -"Why, child, have you not seen enough of the world to learn that a woman -is most attractive to a man when he perceives that she is admired by -other men? Have you not seen that a man seeks to marry a particular -woman, not because he cares so greatly for her himself, but because he -believes that other men care greatly for her? Your good husband is, I -doubt not, fond enough of you; but when he perceives that you think much -more of your baby than you do of him--when he perceives that the men -whom he considered his rivals before he carried you _off_ from them, no -longer follow in your train, is he to be blamed if he finds you a trifle -insipid? Ah, let me tell you, my sweet young wife, a husband is a horse -that requires the touch of a spur now and again. A jog-trot is not what -suits a spirited creature." - -"Heavens, madam! You mean that he--my husband--would be true to me if I -only I--I--" - -"If only you were not too anxious that he should keep pace with the -jog-trot into which you have fallen, my dear. Do you not fancy that I -know he wishes me to sup with him only because he is well aware that -a dozen men will be longing to mince him when they see him mincing my -chicken for me?" - -"But I would go with him to the Gardens if he would ask me, only--ah, no -one would want to mince him on my account." - -"You silly one! Cannot you see that you must place him in the position -of wanting to mince the other man?" - -"How? I protest that I am bewildered." - -"Dear child, go to the Gardens, not with your husband, but with another -man, and you will soon see him return to you with all the ardour of a -lover with a rival in view. Jealousy is the spur which a husband needs -to recall him to a sense of his duty, now and again." - -"I will never consent to adopt such a course, madam. In the first place, -I cannot force myself upon any gentleman of my acquaintance." - -"Then the sooner you find one on whom you can force yourself, the better -chance you will have of bringing your husband to your side." - -"In the second place, I respect my husband too highly--" - -"Too highly to win him back to you, though not too highly to come to me -with a story of the wrongs he has done to you? Oh, go away now; you do -n't deserve your toy." - -Mrs. Lewis did not respond to the laughter of the actress. She remained -standing in the centre of the room with her head down. Fresh tears were -welling up to her eyes. - -"I have given you my advice--and it is the advice of one who knows a -good deal of men and their manners," resumed Mrs. Abington. "If you -cannot see your way to follow it there is nothing more to be said." - -"I may be foolish; but I cannot bring myself to go alone with any man to -the Gardens," said her visitor in a low tone. - -"Then good-bye to you!" cried the actress, with a wave of her hand. - -The little lady went slowly to the door; when there she cast an -appealing glance at Mrs. Abington; but the latter had picked up her copy -of the new comedy, and was apparently studying the contents. With a sigh -Mrs. Lewis opened the door and went out. - -"Foolish child! She will have to buy her experience of men, as her -sisters buy theirs," cried Mrs. Abington, throwing away the book. - -She rose from her seat and yawned, stretching out her arms. As she -recovered herself, her eyes rested on a charcoal sketch of herself in -the character Sir Harry Wildair, in "The Constant Couple," done by Sir -Joshua Reynolds' pupil, Northcote. She gave a little start, then ran to -the door, and called out to Mrs. Lewis, who had not had time to get to -the foot of the stairs. - -"Come back for one moment, madam," cried Mrs. Abington over the -banisters, and when Mrs. Lewis returned, she said: "I called you back to -tell you to be ready dressed for the Gardens on Monday night. I will -accompany you thither in my coach." - -"You mean that you will--" - -"Go away now, like a good child. Ask no more questions till Monday -night." - -She went away, and on the Monday night she was dressed to go to -Vauxhall, when the room in which she was waiting was entered by an -extremely handsome and splendidly dressed young gentleman, who had all -the swagger of one of the beaux of the period, as he advanced to her -smirking. - -"I protest, sir," cried Mrs. Lewis, starting up; "you have made a -mistake. I have not the honour of your acquaintance." - -"'Fore Gad, my charmer, you assume the airs of an innocent miss with -amazing ability," smirked her visitor. "My name, madam, is Wildair, at -your service, and I would fain hope that you will accept my poor escort -to the Gardens." - -A puzzled look was on Mrs. Lewis's face as the gallant began to speak, -but gradually this expression disappeared. She clapped her hands -together girlishly, and then threw herself back on a chair, roaring with -laughter. - - -II. - -The next day at the playhouse Mrs. Abington met Lee Lewis with a -reproachful look. She had written to him on the Saturday, expressing her -regret that she could not go with him to the Gardens, but assuring him -that she would be there, and charging him to look for her. - -"I thought you would believe it worth your while to keep an eye open for -me last night, sir," she now said. "But I dare say you found some metal -more attractive elsewhere." - -"By heavens! I waited for you for an hour on the lantern walk, but you -did not appear," cried Lewis. - -"An hour? only an hour?" said the lady. "And pray how did you pass the -rest of the time?" - -"A strange thing happened," said Lewis, after a pause. "I was amazed to -see my wife there--or one whom I took to be my wife." - -"Ah, sir, these mistakes are of common occurrence," laughed Mrs. -Abington. "Was she, like her husband, alone?" - -"No, that's the worst of it; she was by the side of a handsome young -fellow in a pink coat embroidered with silver." - -"Oh, Mrs. Lewis would seem to have borrowed a leaf from her husband's -book; that is, if it was Mrs. Lewis. Have you asked her if she was at -the Gardens?" - -"How could I ask her that when I had told her that I was going to the -playhouse? I was struck with amazement when I saw her in the distance -with that man--did I mention that he was a particularly good-looking -rascal?" - -"You did; but why you should have been amazed I am at a loss to know. -Mrs. Lewis is a very charming lady, I know." - -"You have seen her?" - -"She was pointed out to me last night." - -"Heavens! then it was she whom I saw in the Gardens? I would not have -believed it." - -"What, are you so unreasonable as to think that 't is a wife's duty to -remain at home while her husband amuses himself at Vauxhall?" - -"Nay, but my wife--" - -"Is a vastly pretty young creature, sir, whom a hundred men as exacting -as her husband, would think it a pleasure to attend at the Gardens or -the Pantheon." - -"She is, beyond doubt a sweet young creature; but Lord, madam, she is so -bound up in her baby that she can give no thought to her husband; and as -for other men--did you see the youth who was beside her?" - -"To be sure I did. He was devoted to her--and so good looking! I give -you my word, sir, I never saw anyone with whose looks I was better -pleased." - -"Zounds, madam, if I had got near him I would have spoilt his good -looks, I promise you. Good Lord! to think that my wife--I tried to get -close to her, but the pair seemed to vanish mysteriously." "You would -have been better employed looking for me. But we will arrange for -another evening, you and I, Mr. Lewis." - -"Yes, we will--we will." - -There was not much heartiness in the way Mr. Lewis assented; and when -the lady tried to get him to fix upon an evening, he excused himself in -a feeble way. - -The day following he walked with her to her house after rehearsal, but -he did not think it necessary to make use of any of those phrases of -gallantry in which he had previously indulged. He talked a good deal -of his wife and her attractions. He had bought her a new gown, he said, -and, beyond a doubt, it would be difficult to find a match for her in -grace and sweetness. He declined Mrs. Abington's invitation to enter the -house. He had to hurry home, he said, having promised to take his wife -by water to Greenwich Park. - -The actress burst into a merry laugh as she stood before the drawing of -Sir Harry Wildair. - -"All men are alike," she cried. "And all women, too, for that matter. -Psha, there are only two people in the world; the name of one is Adam, -the name of the other is Eve." - -In the course of the afternoon a letter was brought to her. It was from -Mrs. Lewis, and it stated that the writer was so much overcome with the -recent kindness and attention which her husband had been showing her, -she had resolved to confess that she had played a trick upon him, and -begged Mrs. Abington's leave to do so. - -Mrs. Abington immediately sat down and wrote a line to her. - -"Do n't be a little fool," she wrote. "Are you so anxious to undo all -that we have done between us? If you pursue that course, I swear to you -that he will be at my feet the next day. No, dear child, leave me to -tell him all that there is to be told." - -Two days afterwards Lee Lewis said to her: - -"I wonder if 't is true that my wife has an admirer." - -"Why should it not be true, sir? Everything that is admirable has an -admirer," said Mrs. Abington. - -"She is not quite the same as she used to be," said he. "I half suspect -that she has something on her mind. Can it be possible that--" - -"Psha, sir, why not put her to the test?" cried Mrs. Abington. - -"The test? How?" - -"Why, sir, give her a chance of going again to the Gardens. Tell her -that you are going to the playhouse on Thursday night, and then do as -you did before, only keep a better look-out for her, and--well you must -promise me that if you find her with that handsome young spark you will -not run him through the body." - -"You seem to take a great interest in this same young spark," said -Lewis. - -"And so I do, sir! Lord, sir, are you jealous of me as well as your -wife?" - -"Jealous? By my soul, madam, I desire nothing more heartily than to hear -of your taking him from my wife." - -"Then carry out my plan, and perhaps I shall be able to oblige you. Put -her to the test on Thursday." - -"You will be there?" - -"I will be there, I promise you." - -"Then I agree." - -"You promise further not to run him through the body?" - -"I promise. Yes, you will have more than a corpse to console you." - -He walked off looking somewhat glum, and in another half hour she had -sent a letter to his wife asking her to be dressed for Vauxhall on -Thursday night. - -The Gardens were flooded with light--except in certain occasional -nooks--and with music everywhere. (It is scarcely necessary to say that -the few dimly-lighted nooks were the most popular in the Gardens.) - -As Mrs. Lewis, accompanied by her dashing escort, descended from the -coach and walked up the long avenue toward the tea-house, many eyes were -focussed upon her, for all the town seemed to be at Vauxhall that night. -But only the quick eyes of Mrs. Abington perceived the face of Lee Lewis -at the outskirts of the crowd. Mrs. Abington smiled; she knew perfectly -well that her disguise was so complete as to remain impenetrable, even -to her most familiar friends, and she had a voice to suit the costume of -the beau, so that, upon previous occasions, she had, when in a similar -dress, escaped all recognition, even at one of the balls at the little -playhouse in the Haymarket. - -She now swaggered through the crowds, rallying, after the most approved -style of the modish young spark, her somewhat timid companion, and -pointing out to her the various celebrities who were strolling about -under the coloured lamps. She pointed out the lively little lady, who -was clearly delighted at being the centre of a circle of admirers, -as Mrs. Thrale, the wife of the great brewer. Around her were General -Paoli, the Corsican refugee; the great Dr. Samuel Johnson; Dr. Burney, -the musician; and Richard Burke, just home from Grenada. - -Some distance further on stood Oliver Goldsmith, the author of the new -comedy, in which Lee Lewis was cast for the part of Young Marlow, and -Mrs. Abington for the part of Miss Hardcastle. Dr. Goldsmith wore a -peach-bloom velvet coat and a waistcoat covered with silver. He was -making the beautiful Miss Horneck and her sister, Mrs. Bunbury, laugh -heartily at some of his witty sayings, which were too subtle to be -understood by such people as James Boswell and Miss Reynolds, but which -were thoroughly relished by the two girls who loved him so well. In -another part of the grounds, Sir Joshua Reynolds walked with his friend -David Garrick; and when she caught sight of the latter, Mrs. Abington -hurried her companion down a side walk, saying: - -"David Garrick is the only one in the Gardens whom I fear; he would see -through my disguise in a moment." - -"My husband is not here, after all, for I have been looking for him," -said Mrs. Lewis. "You see he does not always speak an untruth when he -tells me he is going to the playhouse on the nights he is not acting." - -"Nothing could be clearer, my dear," said her companion. "Oh, yes, men -do speak the truth--yes, sometimes." - -Mrs. Lewis was anxious to return to her home as soon as she had walked -once through the Gardens, but Mrs. Abington declared that to go away -without having supper would make her so ashamed of her impersonation -of the reckless young gallant, she would never again be able to face -an audience in the playhouse; so supper they had together in one of the -raised boxes, Mrs. Abington swearing at the waiters in the truest style -of the man of fashion. - -And all the time they were at supper she could see Lee Lewis furtively -watching them. - -Another hour the actress and her companion remained in the Gardens, and -when at last they returned to the hackney coach, the former did not fail -to see that Lewis was still watching them and following them, though his -wife, all the time the coach was being driven homeward, chattered about -her husband's fidelity. "He will most likely be at home when I arrive," -she said; "and in that case I will tell him all." - -"For fear of any mistake I will enter the house with you," said Mrs. -Abington. "I have heard before now of husbands casting doubt upon even -the most plausible stories their wives invented to account for their -absence." - -"My husband will believe me," said Mrs. Lewis coldly. - -"I shall take very good care that he does," said her companion. - -When they reached the house, they learnt that Mr. Lewis had not yet come -back, and so Mrs. Abington went upstairs and seated herself by the side -of her friend in her parlour. - -Not many minutes had passed before her quick ears became aware of the -opening of the hall-door, and of the stealthy steps of a man upon the -stairs. The steps paused outside the room door, and then putting on her -masculine voice, the actress suddenly cried: - -"Ah, my beloved creature! why will you remain with a husband who cannot -love you as I swear I do? Why not fly with me to happiness?" - -Mrs. Lewis gave a laugh, while her cheek was being kissed--very audibly -kissed--by her companion. - -The next moment the door was flung open so suddenly that Mrs. Lewis was -startled, and gave a cry; but before her husband had time to take a step -into the room, Mrs. Abington had blown out the lamp, leaving the room in -complete darkness. - -"Stand where you are," cried the actress, in her assumed voice; "Stand, -or by the Lord Harry, I'll run you through the vitals!" - -The sound of the whisking of her sword from its sheath followed. - -"Who are you, fellow, and what do you want here?" she continued. - -"The rascal's impudence confounds me," said Lewis. "Infamous scoundrel! -I have had my eye on you all night; I am the husband of the lady whom -you lured from her home to be your companion." - -"Oh, then you are Mr. Lee Lewis, the actor," said Mrs. Abington. "Pray, -how does it come, sir, that you were at Vauxhall when you assured your -poor wife that you were going to the playhouse?" - -"What! the rascal has the audacity--" - -"Husband--husband--a moment will explain all!" cried Mrs. Lewis, across -the table. - -"Silence, woman!" shouted the man. - -"She had better remain silent," said the actress. "Look you, sir, how -often have you not deceived that poor young thing, whose only fault is -loving you too well? What, sir, have you the effrontery to accuse her? -Does your own conscience acquit you of every attempt to deceive her, -that you can throw a stone at her? You blame her for going with me to -the Gardens--can you say that you have never made an appointment with a -lady to meet you at the same Gardens? What truth is there in the -report which is in everyone's mouth, that you are in the train of Mrs. -Abington's admirers?" - -"'Tis false, sir! I love my wife--alas, I should say that I love her -better than a score of Mrs. Abingtons," cried Lewis. - -"Ah, husband, dear husband," began his wife, when Mrs. Abington -interrupted her. - -"Hush, child," she cried. "Let me ask him if he never implored that -woman, Abington, to accompany him to Vauxhall while he told you he was -going to the playhouse? Let me ask him how often he has whiled away the -hours in Mrs. Abington's house, assuring his wife that he was detained -at the play-house. He is silent, you perceive. That means that he has -still a remnant of what once was a conscience. Mr. Lewis, were it light -enough to see you, I am sure that we should find that you were hanging -your head. What! are you surprised that any one should admire the wife -whom you neglected? You are enraged because you saw me by her side at -the Gardens. You have played the spy on us, sir, and in doing so you -have played the fool, and you will acknowledge it and ask your wife's -pardon and mine before five minutes have passed. Call for a light, sir; -we do not expect you to apologise in the dark." - -"The fellow's impudence astounds me," muttered Lewis. He then threw open -the door and shouted down the stairs for a light. - -Mrs. Lewis, while the light was being brought, made another attempt to -explain matters, but Mrs. Abington commanded her to be silent. - -"Everything will be explained when the light comes," said she. - -"Yes," said the man, grimly, "for men cannot cross swords in the dark." - -"There will be no crossing swords here," said Mrs. Abington. - -"Coward--Scoundrel! Now we shall see what you are made of," said the -man, as a servant appeared on the landing with a lighted lamp. - -"Yes; that's just what you will see," said Mrs. Abington in her natural -voice, as the light flooded the room. - -"Great powers!" whispered Lewis, as he found himself confronted by the -fascinating face that he knew so well. - -Mrs. Abington had thrown off her wig in the darkness, and now her own -hair was flowing over her shoulders. - -"Great powers! Mrs. Abington!" - -"Yes, Mr. Lewis, Mrs. Abington, who only waits to hear a very foolish -fellow confess that he has been a fool in letting a thought of any other -woman come into his mind, when he is the husband of so charming a lady -as took supper with me to-night." - -Lee Lewis bowed his head, and, kneeling before his wife, pressed her -hand to his lips. - - - - -THE CAPTURE OF THE DUKE - - -I - -As all hearts are captivated by the most charming Mistress Barry, so it -is my hope that all souls will be captivated by her picture," cried Sir -Godfrey, bowing low between his palette which he held in one hand and -his sheaf of brushes which he held in the other. His pronunciation of -the word charming--he said "sharmink"--had a suggestion of his native -Luebeck about it; but his courtliness was beyond suspicion. None of his -distinguished sitters could complain of his having failed to represent -them on his canvases with dignity and refinement, whatever their candid -friends might think of the accuracy of the portraitures. - -"I only ask to be painted as I am, Sir Godfrey," said Mrs. Barry, when -she had risen after her courtesy in acknowledgment of Sir Godfrey's -gallant compliment. - -"As you are, madam? Ah, your ladyship is the most exacting of my -sitters. As you are? Ah, my dear lady, you must modify your conditions; -my art has its limitations." - -"Your art, but not your arts, sir. I protest that I am overwhelmed by -the latter, as I am lost in admiration of the former," said the actress, -adopting a pose which she knew the painter would appreciate. "Alas, -Sir Godfrey," she added, "you do not well to talk to an actress of the -limitations of art. What a paltry aim has our art compared with yours! I -have had cravings after immortality--that is why I am here to-day." - -"'T is surely, then, the future of the painter that you have had at -heart, my dear madam; you come with immortality shining in your face." - -"Nay, sir; Sir Godfrey Kneller will live forevermore in his long line of -legitimate monarchs--ay, and others, perhaps not quite--" - -"For God's sake, Mistress Barry! These are dangerous days; pray remember -that I am the queen's limner." - -Sir Godfrey Kneller spoke in a whisper, touching her arm with the -handles of his brushes as he glanced apprehensively around the -painting-room of his house in Great Queen Street. - -Mrs. Barry looked at him with a reckless gaiety in her eyes. - -"What, have I said anything treasonable, anything to compromise the -Court painter?" she cried. - -"Walls have ears, my dear," whispered the painter. - -"And what matters that, so long as they have not tongues?" laughed the -lady. "Ah, my dear Sir Godfrey, you do your art an injustice to fancy -that any one could utter a word of treason in this room surrounded by so -many living faces." She pointed to the easels on which were hung several -portraits approaching completion. "They are all living, my friend. I vow -that when I entered here just now I felt inclined to sink in a courtesy -before Her Grace of Marlborough." She indicated the portrait of the -duchess which Sir Godfrey had all but finished--one of the finest of all -his works. - -Sir Godfrey smiled. - -"Ah, who, indeed, could talk treason in the presence of Her Grace?" he -said. - -"None, save His Grace, I suppose," said the actress. "And now I am ready -to sit to you--unless you have any further courtly compliments to pass -on me. Only, by my faith, I do not choose to place myself nigh to Her -Grace. Those eyes of hers make me feel uneasy. Prithee, Sir Godfrey, -permit me to turn my back upon the duchess; the act will, I protest, -give me a feeling of pride which will speedily betray itself on my -face. People will say, 'Only an actress, yet she turned her back upon -a duchess'--ay, and such a duchess! They say their Graces have lost -nothing by their adherence to the Queen." - -Mrs. Barry had now posed herself, flinging back her hair from her -forehead, so that her broad, massive brow was fully shown, and the -painter had begun to work upon her picture. - -"Ah, people say that? And what reason have they for saying it, I -wonder?" remarked Sir Godfrey. - -"The best of reasons, my good friend. They say that their Graces have -lost nothing by standing by the Queen, because if they ran a chance of -losing anything they would quickly stand by the King--His Majesty over -the water." - -Sir Godfrey laughed. "I vow, Mistress Barry, that your gossips have -failed to interpret as I would the expression upon the face of Her Grace -of Marlborough," said he. "Great heaven, madam, cannot one perceive a -pensiveness upon that face of hers?--nay, prithee, do not turn your head -to look for the expression. I want not to lose your expression while you -are endeavoring to catch that of Her Grace." - -"The Sad Sarah! And you mean to reproduce the sadness, Sir Godfrey?" - -"Not sadness--only pensiveness." - -"The one is the same as t' other. Then you will cause posterity to -affirm that Sarah was sad to find that she had not become so rich in -adhering to the Queen as she might have if she had sent her pensive -glances across to France?" - -"Then posterity will do her wrong. Her Grace is truly attached to the -Queen--so truly attached that she becomes melancholic at the thought of -not being completely trusted by Her Majesty." - -Sir Godfrey's voice had sunk to a whisper as he made this revelation; -and when he had spoken he glanced once more round the room as if to -assure himself that he had no listeners beside Mrs. Barry. - -"And the Queen does not trust her?" cried the actress. "Ah, well, I -suppose 't is impossible even for a Queen to be for so many years in her -company without understanding her. Ah, the poor Duke! Prithee continue -your story, Sir Godfrey. I perceive that you would fain lead one up to -the scandalous part." - -"Scandalous part, madam? Nay, if you discern not a deep pathos in the -sad look of Her Grace, the Duchess, after the key which I have given you -to her expression, no rehearsal of scandal would awake your interest in -the subject of yonder portrait." - -"Nay, sir, if you refuse to tell me further, you will have to bear with -the mockery of posterity for depicting me with a melancholic visage, as -well as your Duchess. Pray tell me the scandal, or I vow I shall have a -fit of the vapours all the time you are painting my portrait." - -"My dear lady, there is no scandal to rehearse, I pledge you my word," -said the painter. "'T is only said that Her Majesty--" - -"Is blest by heaven with excellent eyesight? Well, yes; I dare swear -that your Duchess is strongly of that opinion--that is what adds to her -melancholy. But I vow 't is most scandalous that there's no scandal. We -must try and repair this, you and I, Sir Godfrey." - -"What, does the woman fancy that all lives should be regulated on the -lines set down by the poets who write for your playhouses?" - -"And why not? If our poets will not be true to nature, is it not our -duty to try to make nature true to the poets?" - -"Faith, madam, that were to put an outrage upon nature, if I grasp your -meaning aright." - -"Nay, sir, 'tis no great outrage. If our writers treat of the humours -of an intrigue in high places, and if we find, on climbing to these high -places, that no scandal is to be found there but only humdrum existence, -is it not our duty to foster a scandal for the justification of our -writers?" - -"_Mille tonnerres!_ Have I been cherishing a fiery flying serpent all -this time? Have I been playing with a firebrand? Why, 't is in the -aspect of Medusa I should be painting you, Mistress Barry; you should -have ringletted snakes entwined among your hair. I' faith, madam, that -is a pretty theory to propound in an honest man's house. We must become -scandalous in order to save a playhouse poet from being accounted untrue -to life?" - -"And why not? Ah, Sir Godfrey, I greatly fear that you have no true -feeling for art." - -The actress spoke sadly and shook her head with such exquisite -simulation of melancholy as caused the painter to lay down his palette -and roar with laughter. - -"You have a true feeling for art, beyond doubt, my Barry," he cried. -"You have no room to reproach yourself, I dare swear. You have all the -men in town at your feet, and all their wives ready to scratch out your -eyes--and all for the advancement of art, you say. You are ready to -jeopardise your own reputation in order to save that of your poets! Ah, -what a kind heart hath the Barry!" - -"Faith, Sir Godfrey, if I did not make a wife or two jealous, how could -I know what a jealous woman looks like, and if I did not know what a -jealous woman looks like, how could I act the part of a jealous woman in -the playhouse?" - -"Ah, how indeed? The play-goers worship you if their wives long for -those ringlets that ensnare their husbands in their meshes. What is a -wedding-ring against a wanton ringlet?" - -"'T is my duty as an actress that compels me to seek for examples of the -strongest emotions, Sir Godfrey--you perceive that that is so?" - -"Ah, beyond doubt--beyond doubt, madam." - -"That rejoices me. And now touching this Duchess of Marlborough--" - -"You will have to seek your examples of strong emotion outside my house, -my friend. Do you fancy that Her Grace--" - -"Is a woman? Nay, she is a very woman, so far as my poor observation, -supplemented by a small trifle of experience, is permitted to judge. -Think you that her sadness of visage is due to mortification that her -spouse is still faithful to her?" - -"Surely such a reflection should call for an expression of satisfaction, -my fair observer." - -"Nay, Sir Godfrey; that were to take a view of the matter in no -wise deep. Would you not have Her Grace to think as other women less -formidable think, in this wise: 'what fate is mine to be wed to a man -whom no woman thinks worth the tempting'?" - -"Zounds, my Barry, that were the strangest way recorded to account for a -wife's sadness. How know you that His Grace has not been tempted?" - -"I make no such charge against him, Sir Godfrey; I think not such evil -of him as that he hath not been tempted. I make but a humble attempt to -think as Her Grace may think when she has her moods." - -"That were a presumption for such as you, madam. What! you an actress, -and she a duchess, and yet you would venture--" - -The laugh which illuminated the face of Sir Godfrey had scarcely passed -away before his servant entered the painting room in haste, announcing -that the coach of the Duchess of Marlborough was at the door, and that -Her Grace was in the act of dismounting. - -"That means that my sitting is at an end," said Mrs. Barry. - -"And I must e'en hustle you out of the room, my dear," said the painter. -"Her Grace is not the most patient of dames when it comes to waiting on -a painter." - -"Or on a painter's sitter, particularly when that sitter is only an -actress. Ah, Sir Godfrey, you might permit me to remain in secret that I -may know how a Duchess conducts herself upon occasions." - -"Tut--tut! Would you play a comedy in my house, you baggage?" cried the -painter, pushing her playfully to the door. "Fly--fly--before it is too -late." - -"Ah, Sir Godfrey, you are indeed unkind. Prithee how may I hope to enact -the part of a duchess in the playhouse if I am not permitted to witness -one in the life?" - -"Off--off--I say! You will have to trust to your own instinct, which I -take to be a faithful enough guide in your case, my dear Barry. And -so farewell to you." Still protesting, and very prettily pouting, the -actress suffered herself to be gently forced from the room into the -square, inner hall, which was lighted by a dome of coloured glass. Sir -Godfrey, kissing the tip of one of his fingers, bowed her an adieu, but -without speaking, as he held up the tapestry _portiere_. - -[Illustration: 0278] - -Mrs. Barry replied with a modified courtesy, and turned as if to make -her way to the outer hall; but the moment Sir Godfrey let fall the -tapestry, she returned on tiptoe, and moving it an inch to one side, -peered through into the studio. She saw the painter hurrying from the -large apartment into the small retiring-room at the farther end, and the -moment that he disappeared she was back like a flash into the studio and -in hiding behind a full-length canvas that leant against an easel in a -dark corner. - -Five seconds were sufficient to carry out the plan which she had -conceived on the impulse of the moment. Had it occupied seven she would -have been discovered, for Sir Godfrey had merely entered his wardrobe -to throw off one coat and put on another. He returned to the studio, and -immediately rang his bell. When the servant entered, he said: - -"When Her Grace is ready, lead her hither." - -The servant bowed and left the studio, while Sir Godfrey arranged the -chair on the dais for his new sitter, and placed the half-finished -portrait of the Duchess on his easel. He had scarcely done so before the -rings of the _portiere_ were rattling, and the Duchess of Marlborough -entered, attired for the sitting. How she looked on that day, the -painter has by his art enabled all succeeding generations to learn. -Sir Godfrey Kneller's portrait of the Duchess is, perhaps, his most -characteristic work. If the distinction which it possesses in every -feature was scarcely shared by the original in the same degree, there -was still sufficient character in the face of the great lady to make -it profoundly interesting, especially to so close an observer as Sir -Godfrey Kneller. - -"Ah, my dear Kneller," cried Her Grace, as the painter advanced to greet -her with bowed head, "I am even before my appointed hour to-day. That -glance of sad reproach which you cast at your timepiece when I last came -hither--though only half an hour late, I swear--had its effect upon me." - -"Her Grace of Marlborough is one of those rare ones for whom it might -reasonably be expected that the sun would stand still," said the -painter. - -"As it did once at the command of the Hebrew general? Ah, my Kneller, -what a pity it is that a certain great General of the moderns cannot -make his commands respected in the same direction." - -"His Grace has no need to supplement his own generalship by--by--" - -"By the aid of heaven, you would say? By the Lord, Sir Godfrey,'t is -rather the aid of the opposite power our generalissimo would invoke, if -taken at a disadvantage." - -"It would be impossible to conceive an incident so remarkable as His -Grace taken at a disadvantage." - -"I would fain believe you to be right, friend Kneller. Yes, I have not -once caught him tripping. But that, you may say, is not so much because -His Grace does not trip, as because his generalship is too subtle for -such an one as I." - -"Nay, nay, madam; so ungenteel a thought could never be entertained -by one who has the privilege of knowing the Duke and of seeing the -Duchess." - -"Vastly prettily spoken, Sir Godfrey; and with the air of a courtier, -too; but, unlike t' other things of the Court, there is truth in your -words. Look you, Kneller, there's the slut who calls herself Mistress -Barry--she carries half the town away captive at her chariot-wheels--" -she pointed to the portrait of Mrs. Barry. "But think you that her -fascinations would have power to prevail against my lord the Duke? Nay, -adamant is as snow compared to his demeanour when the wretch is moving -all hearts within the playhouse. Have not I found him sitting with -closed eyes while the woman was flaunting it about the stage, and men's -swords were ready to fly from their scabbards at the throats of them -that had got a soft look from her?" - -"Is 't possible?" - -"Ay, sir; 't is more than possible. The insolent hussy has oft cast up -her eyes at our box in the playhouse, ogling His Grace, if you please. -The fool little knew that she was ogling a slumbering man. Nay, Sir -Godfrey, if I were as sure of my ground in other directions as I am of -His Grace, I were a happy woman." - -She took her place on the dais, and the expression of pensiveness which -appears on the face of the portrait became intensified. This fact, -however, did not prevent a dainty little fist from quivering in her -direction from the side of the full-length picture in the corner. The -Duchess had her back turned to that particular corner. - -"Your Grace deserves to be the happiest of women," said the painter. - -"If only to give so admirable a limner an opportunity of depicting a -smiling face," said the Duchess. - -"Nay, madam, a smile doth not make a picture," replied Sir Godfrey. "On -the contrary, it oft destroys one. Your painter of smirking goddesses -finds his vocation at the Fair of St. Bartolemy. I would fain hope that -I am not such." There was a silence, during which Sir Godfrey painted -the hair upon his canvas with his usual dexterity. Then Her Grace -sighed. - -"Know you the best means of bringing back an errant confidence, Sir -Godfrey?" she asked after another long pause. - -"An errant confidence, madam?" - -"The confidence of one whom I love, and who I think would fain love me -still, were it not for the tongue of slander." - -"Nay, your Grace, I am but a painter; no Rubens am I in the skill that -pertains to an envoy. Still, it occurs to me that the rendering of some -signal service to the one whose mood your Grace describes should bring -you to her heart again." - -The Duchess sprang from her chair and began pacing the narrow limits of -the dais, her hands clenched, and the expression on her face becoming -one of passion solely. - -"Some signal service--some signal service!" she cried. "Man, have I not -grown aged in her service? Who among those around her hath shown her and -hers such service as ours has been--my husband's and mine? And yet when -she hears the rumour of a plot she taunts me that I was not the first -to warn her. Heavens! Does it rest with me to see the word 'conspirator' -branded on the flesh of one who may hap to wear a cuirass? Is there -any skill that will enable mine eyes to perceive in a man's bearing -an adherent to the family at St. Germains? By the Lord, Sir Godfrey -Kneller, I may be tried too much. Think you that if we were to turn our -eyes in the direction of St. Germains there would not be a goodly number -of persons in this realm who would turn their eyes and their coats with -us?" - -"For God's sake, madam--" - -"Nay, 't is but an abstract proposition, friend Kneller. I have wit -enough to perceive that the atmosphere of France suiteth best the -health of some folk. For mine own part, I like best our English air; but -if--ah, continue your painting, Sir Godfrey, and see that you make mine -eyes the eyes of one who looks not overseas for succour." - -Her Grace threw herself once more into the chair, and the painter -resumed his work in silence. He could not but reproduce the pensive -expression that once more was worn by the face of the Duchess. - -At the end of half an hour she rose, complaining that she was tired. She -smiled, giving her hand to Sir Godfrey, as she said. - -"I know, my good friend, that it is safe to rage in your presence; you -are discretion itself." - -"Your Grace hath never put my discretion to the test," said the Court -painter, with a low bow. - -"The Duke will mayhap visit you to inspect the portrait, Sir Godfrey," -said the Duchess when at the door. "Pray let him know that I await him -at St. James's." - -"I shall not fail, madam," said the painter. "And I will not ask your -Grace to sit to me until Friday. I have to be in Richmond on Thursday." - -He held back the _portiere_ for her exit, and then followed her through -the domed hall to the apartment where her maid awaited her. - -On his return to the studio he found himself face to face with Mrs. -Barry. For an instant he stood speechless. Then, with a glance behind -him, he whispered: - -"How did you come hither, in the name of heaven?" - -"In a name which you are bound to respect--the name of art," she -replied. - -"I sought but a lesson, and I have not sought in vain. A duchess! Good -Lord! These be your duchesses! The manners of a kitchen wench allied to -the language of a waterman. A duchess!" - -"Madam--Mistress Barry--" - -"Oh, the poor Duke! How oft have not I heard that His Grace looks -forward to the hottest campaign with joy? Oh, I can well believe it. And -the look of pensiveness on Her Grace's face--observe it, most faithful -of limners." - -She stood pointing to the portrait of the Duchess in a stage attitude -of scorn. Sir Godfrey, as he looked at her, felt that he should like to -paint her in that attitude for the benefit of posterity. Then she burst -into a scornful laugh, at which he became more serious than ever. In -another moment, however, she had introduced a note of merriment into her -laughter, and in spite of the fact that he had been extremely angry on -finding that she had been in hiding he could not help joining in her -laughter. - -"The pensive Duchess!" she cried. "Nay, rather, the pensive Duke, my -friend. Paint him as 'Il Penseroso'--the Duke who had eyes only for -the graces of Her Grace--who had ears only for her dulcet phrases--who -snored in the face of the actress who was ogling him from the stage. -Grant me patience, heaven! If I fail to bring him to my feet in the -sight of that woman, may I never tread the stage more! I have a scheme, -Sir Godfrey, which only needs your help to--" - -"My help! _Gott in Himmel!_ You shall not have my help! What! do you -fancy that you may turn my painting-room into a playhouse stage, and act -your farces--" - -"His Grace the Duke of Marlborough." - -The servant had thrown open the door as he made the announcement. - -"Ah! Heaven is on my side! I need not your help," cried the actress, in -an aside, as she turned to a mirror to still further dishevel her hair. - -The Duke of Marlborough, entering the studio, found himself confronted -by a lovely woman visibly fluttered, and apparently anxious to prevent -the lace upon her shoulders from revealing even so much of her bosom as -the painter had thought necessary for artistic purposes. - -"Ha! Kneller!" cried the Duke, "I find that I am an intruder. How is -this, sir? Your fellow said that you were alone." - -"It is only my friend, Mistress Barry, your Grace, whose portrait has -become my pastime," said Sir Godfrey. - -"And Mistress Barry is of no account," said the actress, sinking in a -courtesy. "Ah, your Grace, Sir Godfrey forces me to excuse both his own -imprudence and my impudence. When I learned that the Duke of Marlborough -was to come hither I implored him to permit me to remain in order that -the dream of my poor life might be realised." - -"The dream of your life, madam?" said the Duke. - -"I dare say 't is the dream of many lives," said the lady in a low -voice, somewhat broken by an emotion she could not repress, even though -she took one hand away from her lace to still the beating of her heart. -"And now that I find myself face to face with the one who has saved our -country's honour in an hundred fights, I protest that I am overcome with -the result of my boldness. Oh, your Grace, forgive the weakness of a -poor weak woman." - -"Madam," said the Duke, "this moment repays me for whatever trifling -hardship I have undergone in my campaigns. To find that all the charms -of Mistress Barry on the stage are but feeble compared with those gifts -of nature with which she had been endowed, were sure an astonishment to -one who had seen her only when she was the centre of a thousand eyes." - -"Oh, your Grace is determined to overwhelm your friends with your -compliments as you do your enemies with your culverins. But I vow I am -too forward. I am presuming to include my poor self among your Grace's -friends." - -"Then think of a sweeter name, my dear lady, and I shall agree to it -without demur." - -The Duke was beyond doubt not insensible to the charms of the beautiful -actress. She had apparently quite forgotten that the drapery about her -shoulders had fallen away more freely even than was permissible in -the exigencies of the classical art affected by the eighteenth century -painters. - -"Ah, Your Grace leaves me without a voice even of protest," murmured the -actress, glancing modestly at the floor. - -"Nay, Mistress Barry has need only to protest against the limitations -of speech," said the Duke, facing her and offering her his hand, which, -after a moment's hesitation, she took with the homage that she would -have given to the hand of a monarch. Then she dropped it with a half -stifled sigh, and turned to the door without a word. - -"Wherefore fly?" said the Duke, raising the side of the _portiere_ while -she made a courtesy. - -"'T were better so, though I know your Grace cannot understand how -flight should ever be linked with discretion." - -"At least, let me conduct you to your chair, madam. Nay, I insist." - -They had scarcely got beneath the glass dome before she had laid her -hand upon his arm. - -"I was determined to see you face to face," she said in a rapid whisper. -"I have something of the greatest gravity that is for your ear alone. -You would step between the Queen and disaster?" - -"I have done so before now," said the Duke. "Heaven may be equally kind -to me again. Come with me in my coach now; it is already dusk." - -"No--no--that would be fatal to both of us," she whispered. "We are -surrounded by enemies--spies--purveyors of treason--the very life of the -Queen is in danger." - -"You speak sincerely," said the Duke. "Come to my house after the play." - -"Impossible! Your Grace little knows in what quarter the danger lies. I -lit upon it by accident myself. Let me see. Ah, I have it: Sir Godfrey's -painting room at a quarter after four on Thursday--this is Tuesday--yes, -in secret--and in the mean time, not a word to living man or woman--not -even Her Grace." - -"Why not take your seat in my coach; it has curtains." - -"Impossible! Ah, trust me to know wherein lieth safety and prudence. -Hasten back. Good Sir Godfrey must not suspect." - -"Heavens! You do not say that he is--" - -"He is true; but he talks. We need those who are dumb. Not a word in -human ear." - -He looked into her face--eagerly--searchingly. She never winced. He -pressed her hand and returned to the studio. - -She was halfway down the street in her chair before she burst into a -merry laugh. - -"Her Grace shall have enough of plots to last her for awhile at -any rate. Our painter goes to Richmond on Thursday; he said so. Oh, -Lud--Lud! how quick the notion came to me when His Grace appeared. Ah, -Mistress Barry, thou hast not read in vain all that the poets have -writ for the playhouse. I can see that they are both wild to show their -devotion to Her Majesty. They would fain discover plots growing along -the hedgerows of St. James's Park. They will be as easily trapped as -tame pigeons." - -"What," cried Mistress Barry on Thursday afternoon, to the servant who -opened the door for her at Sir Godfrey Kneller's house, "what! gone to -Richmond? Nay,'t is not possible. I sit to him at four." - -"My master said it would be five ere he returned from her ladyship's, -madam." - -"Oh, Lud, surely he made a mistake; or you have misheard him, sirrah. He -will be back at four, and I'll e'n wait for him in the painting-room. If -he have not returned by the half hour I will tarry no longer." - -She walked past the servant--he made no demur--and entered the studio. -Sauntering about for a few moments, she then went to the door and locked -it. She hastened to a shelf on which lay some broken chalks. In a few -moments, standing before the tall mirror, she had completely altered her -face; she had "made up" her features and complexion as those of an old -woman. - -Then from apparently capacious pockets in the cloak which she wore -she brought forth a grey wig of many curls, which she put over her own -chestnut hair; and a servant's apron which completely hid her gown. -A few adroit touches transformed her into a venerable person of much -respectability--one whose appearance suggested that of an aged retainer -in a family where her services were properly valued. She surveyed -herself in the glass, saying, "Her Grace will, I can swear, recognise -the good woman whose sense of duty compelled her to address so mighty -a lady touching the vile conspiracy to which Her Grace is to be made -privy." - -While she was standing back from the glass, laughing as she kissed -the tips of her fingers to the figure who responded in like fashion, -a gentle knock sounded on the small side door that led into the arched -passage to the garden--the door by which the painter's models were -admitted to the studio without passing through the house. The actress, -giving a final smooth to her apron, hastened to open the door, but only -to the extent of an inch or two. - -"What's your business, madam?" she inquired, in the quavering accents of -age, through the opening. - -"I have come hither for Mrs. Freeman's frock," was the reply in a low -voice. - -"It will be ready for you in half an hour, my good woman," said the -actress. "Meantime, enter and wait." - -She admitted a muffled and closely-veiled figure, and, when she had -closed the door, made an old-fashioned curtesy. - -"You are Mrs. Smollett?" said the figure, in a low voice, after glancing -round the studio. - -"Elizabeth Smollett, your Grace, is my name," quavered Mrs. Barry. "Ah, -madam, you have had the courage to come hither." - -"Courage?" said the Duchess. "It needed none. If what your letter told -me be true, it is time that some true friend of the Queen's came hither. -Is it possible that your master, Sir Godfrey, knoweth naught of the -plot?" - -"He knoweth naught, madam. The head and front of the wicked business -came to him as his _valet de chambre_ with the best recommendations. It -was only by accident that I discovered the fellow's motives. He was for -three years at St. Germains." - -"At St. Germains! The wretch! Mrs. Smollett, your devotion to Her -Majesty in this matter shall not go unrewarded. I can promise you that. -They hope to seize the Queen! Merciful heaven! Are they fools enough to -fancy that that act would further their ends? Ah, shall I now be avenged -upon mine enemies who whisper to Her Majesty! And you, Smollett--you -will bless the day you wrote to me." - -"Not so loud, your Grace," whispered the actress. "There may be those at -hand that we know not of. This is where your grace must be in hiding." -She led the Duchess up the studio to the curtain that hung across the -retiring room. "Your Grace will be entirely hid in the recess of the -door, and unless I am far mistaken you shall hear more than you ever -expected. Now, madam, for God's sake remain fast hid behind the curtain. -I shall return to my household duties lest I should be suspected." - -"You will bless this day," whispered Her Grace from behind the -_portiere_. - -Mrs. Barry put her finger to her lips as she noiselessly unlocked the -door leading to the domed hall and then passed through. - -She hastily removed all traces of her disguise, placing the wig and -apron behind a marble pedestal that bore a reproduction of the flying -Mercury. She paused at the door for some time before returning to the -studio, and when at last she opened it she did so very cautiously, -putting her head just beyond the _portiere_ at first. Then she closed -the door behind her and advanced. She did not fail to notice the little -movement of the curtain at the farther end of the studio. Then she gave -a fine sigh and threw herself into a chair. - -"Heigh ho!" she said, in a tone that she meant to be audible in every -part of the room. "Heigh ho! 't is weary waiting for one's love. But my -love--my hero--is worthy to be waited for by empresses. Yet, if I had -not his picture to look upon now I vow I should feel melancholic. Ah, -Sir Godfrey. He has dealt as harshly with the face of my Duke as he -hath dealt gently with that ancient harridan, the Duchess." (She saw the -distant _portiere_ quiver.) "Great heavens!" she continued, rising and -standing in front of the portrait of the Duchess. "Great heavens! is it -a matter of wonder that His Grace should be sick unto death of that face -of hers? All the flattery of the painter cannot hide the malevolence of -her countenance. The Queen perceived it long ago, and yet they say that -she hopes to regain the favour of her royal mistress! - -"Poor creature! But indeed she is to be pitied. She hath lost the favour -of her Queen and the heart of her spouse. Ah, my hero--my beloved--your -heart is mine--all mine. How oft have I not heard your sweet words -telling me that--how oft? But why are you not here to tell it to me now? -Why--ah, at last--at last!" - -A knock had sounded at the side door in the midst of her passionate -inquiries, and she almost flew to the door, "Ah, at last--at last you -have come!" she said in a fervent whisper as the Duke entered. - -"I have come," he replied, still holding her hand. He had no choice left -in the matter. She did not withdraw her hand after she had given it to -him. It would scarcely have done for him to cast it from him. "You are -sure that Sir Godfrey has not yet returned?" - -"I am sure of it," said she. "Would I be here with you alone if he had -returned?" - -"No, no; of course not," said the Duke. "But would I not come far if -only to press this little hand?" - -His experience of women had taught him that a little flattery is never -out of place with them. He supposed it was out of sheer nervousness that -Mrs. Barry had failed to withdraw her hand. - -She did not withdraw it even now, however. It was only when they had -walked side by side half way across the room that she withdrew her -hand. She saw that a large picture on an easel was between them and the -distant _portiere_. - -"You have come--you have trusted me," she murmured, with her eyes cast -down. - -He looked at her. He began to fear that she was faltering. She needed -encouragement to make her revelation to him. - -"I have trusted you, dear one; ah, you know not to what extent I would -trust you. I would go to the ends of the earth to hear what you have to -tell me." - -"That is what I wish," she cried. "Could we not meet at some distant -spot where all that my heart contains might be yours? Ah, let us fly -thither without delay! Delay may make havoc of our future." - -"Pray, calm yourself," said the Duke. He perceived that his companion -was of an hysterical type. She would need to be treated with great tact -before she could be brought to communicate anything that she knew. - -"Ah, 't is easy for a soldier to be calm," she cried. "'T is not so -easy for a poor woman who is by nature trustful and yet by experience -distrustful." - -"You may trust me, my sweet creature," he said. - -"May I? May I?" she whispered, looking into his face. "Ah, no, no; leave -me--leave me alone to die here! Mine was the fault--mine alone." - -She had put her hands before her face and gone excitedly halfway down -the apartment. - -"You shall not die!" he cried, following her. "Just heaven, child, am I -nobody? Is my protection worth nothing, that you should be afraid?" - -"Your protection?" She had removed her hands from her face. "What! you -will let me be under your protection?" - -"I swear to you." - -"Ah, then I will trust you--forever--for ever," cried the actress, -flinging herself into the arms of the astonished Duke and laying her -head on his shoulder. - -He was much more astonished when a voice rang through the studio: - -"Wretch! Infamous wretches both!" - -"Oh, Lud!" cried Mrs. Barry, forsaking her resting place and standing a -yard or two apart. "Oh, Lud, who is the plain little woman that has been -eavesdropping? I vow, Duke, she was not invited to our meeting." - -"Infamous creature! I am the Duchess of Marlborough!" - -"Nay, that were impossible. I happen to know that the Duchess has a -limitless faith in the Duke, especially in regard to so plain a creature -as Mistress Barry, and you have the face and bearing of a jealous woman. -Her Grace of Marlborough would not be jealous, my good creature." - -"Madam," said the Duke, turning to his wife, "madam, you have played an -unworthy part--spying--" - -"Silence, libertine!" thundered the Duchess, looking like a fury. - -[Illustration: 0309] - -"Faith, 't is the Duchess, after all," said the actress. "Ah, Sir -Godfrey has returned in good time." Sir Godfrey was standing at the -door. "Dear Sir Godfrey, Her Grace is anxious for you to paint her in -her true character--that of the jealous wife; and so I leave her in -your good hands. Adieu, your Grace. Oh, fie, to be jealous of so poor a -creature as an actress!" - -She stood for a moment by the side of the painter, turning half round as -she raised the tapestry hanging. Her laughter when she had passed into -the hall, rang through the studio. - -Sir Godfrey began to speak. - -"I fear greatly that in my absence--" - -"Sir, in your absence your house has been turned into a lover's -rendezvous!" cried the Duchess. "Your aged domestic, Mrs. Smollett, -wrote to me a confidential letter--" - -"Madam, I have no aged domestic, and I know no one of the name of -Smollett," said Sir Godfrey. - -"What! Oh, the man is in the plot also! It were beneath my dignity to -converse further with him. Shame, sir--shame on both of you!" - -She flung herself through the _portiere_ and disappeared in a billow of -tapestry. - -The Duke and Sir Godfrey stood side by side in silence in the studio. At -last the former spoke. - -"Faith, Kneller, I think I begin to see how we have all been tricked. -That play-actress hath made fools of us all for her own sport." - -"I begin to fear that that is so," said Sir Godfrey. - -"Ay, sir; she hath fooled us," said the Duke. "Methinks it will be some -space of time before the wrath of Her Grace will be appeased." - -And so it was. - - - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Impudent Comedian & Others, by -Frank Frankfort Moore - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IMPUDENT COMEDIAN & OTHERS *** - -***** This file should be named 51923.txt or 51923.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/9/2/51923/ - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by Google Books - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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