corner of the box, the elderly person who ous brawlers, as he called them, besought had attracted my attention at Maspero's. them to cease their savage yells, and his He was bearing back into the shade, but sed with all his might. The pit gentry, I marked the rapidly succeeding changes interpreting this as an expression of conof his countenance. His first aspect was tempt for their idol, only clapped the more, that of pleasure, nay, delight, as if he had reared turn him out and assailed him fully partaken of the popular feeling, which with various misiles, which took equal effect was still expressing itself in plaudits. upon his innocent neighbours, as himself. Then he compressed his lips, and his brow-I tried to drag him back into the box became wrinkled with intense pain, and but he leaned over the front still farther, the frown and muscular distortion of fierce and by the wild vehemence of his manner anger followed. He seemed convulsed attracted the attention of Juliet herself, for an instant with passion, till burying his who, for an instant forgot her Romeo to head in his hands, his face was conceal- fix her eyes upon the youth, whose figure ed from my view. I continued to regard among the audience was so conspicuous. him with the feelings of curious interest ex- She seemed in a moment to understand his cited by the unaccountable mystery of his motives and smiled in gentle approval of conduct, till he raised his head and re- them, while by a motion of her hand and. sumed his first posture, folding his arms head she appeared to deprecate the efforts. and smoothing his countenance into rigid to which they led. He saw the smile, sternness, as if wrought up to endure the understood the gentle reproof, and retired torment which had distracted his mind behind me out of the sight of the people beand visage. low, delighted with her notice and happy From this time I kept my eye upon him. in shewing his devotion, by instant obediThe play went on. In the masquerade ence.

scene, Juliet was hailed with redoubled His disappearance stilled the tumult, and rapture. Then came the interview with it was now my care to prevent his proving Romeo from the balcony, in which, as the the cause of its recurrence. I besought character which she sustained developed him not to suffer his admiration of a pretty itself, she began to evince. the perfection actress to make him regardless of public of her conception and execution. Romeo exposure and ridicule. My exhortations himself caught inspiration from his mistress were not needed. His manner had chanand surpassed, his former self. "The dolt ged as by magic, when he received that the vulgar villian!" ejaculated Augus in token of grateful, yet admonishing recog my ear" even his dull grossness cannot nition; he became as quiet as a lamb; help being roused and refined by her pre- and during the rest of the play remained sence and her converse. Cupid be praised absorbed in deep attention to every word she is now out of his reach; how it pleased and look of Juliet; the passionate intensity me to see her recoil from his kiss; it of his feelings exhibiting themselves alone makes me blaze with jealousy to see him in the workings of his countenance. As polute her with his touch." he had asserted, she managed her motions

"Wait" said I. smiling, "until we get with such matchless and delicate dexterithem both into the Capulets; she cannot ty as to avoid the touch of Romeo withthen avoid coming to close quarters." My out seeming to shrink from it; her dignilife on it," he exclaimed, "she will even ty, devoid of prudery and stiffness, yet then conduct herself with consumate deli-awed and repelled him, although his councacy; though I am on fire at the thought tenance told how ready he would have of what she must inevitably submit to." been to take advantage of a player's priviJust then she uttered a passage of unpas lege. When the tragedy of the drama sing tenderness, with all the witchery of commenced, the eyes of the audience began fresh and girlish fondness, and the feelings to moisten and so powerful was the pathos of the audience burst forth in a long and of her acting, that the melting mood exloud expression of approbation, which tended itself to those least troubled with drowned several of the following senten- sensibility.. I had occasionally cast an Augus was in an agony as he strove eye upon the elderly stranger behind me. in vain to catch the tones of her silvery His emotions increased each moment and voice. He cursed the erowd of boister at the close of the last scene hi ssebs were

ces.

.

its dark hulls and its forests of spars and recalled the countenance of the son of his rigging, upon the outside in equally pro friend..

found repose. It was as bright as the sun. When the first ejaculations of surprise shine at doon. The sea breeze, whose were over and I had been introduced to steady current came freshly up the river, Mr. Dartmore, Augus hurriedly asked him, wafted the musquitoes from the shore,Is Miss Clara Wilton, the actress, your gave us a pure reanimating atinosphere daughter?" "Yes," he replied, with a to breathe, and fanned the feverish brow groan that seemed to come from his inof my companion, who opened his bosom most heart, "she is too ti uly, my lost, unto the cooling air. The stillness was now happy, un orthy child."-"You do not, and then broken by the shrill, harsh creak then, countenance her present professioning of the ungreased wheels. of one of meeting you here, I had for an instant those water carts, that ply daily and night feared that she was pursuing it under ly through the streets, piercing the tortu- your protection."-"God in heaven forbid" rod ears of the stranger, till his hardened he exclaimed, "no-no- she adopted and auriculars become habituated to the sound. adheres to it in defiance of my authority In the pauses of this melody came music, and my wishes, knowing my peace to be floating over the waters, of a finely con- ruined, my heart to be broken, my life trasted description. It was the rude.chaunt rendered miserable and precarious by her of some negroes returning down the river conduct." "And what in heaven's name to their inaster's plantation, and beguiling led to this disgraceful dereliction of her the foil of their oars with a wild yet rich duty to you and to herself?" . and well harmonized chorus. We walk. The story is soon told. When she ed slowly along the levee in silence, until was a child of ten years; I took her to see spoke to him of 'his return to the ship.the "Children in the Wood" as a reward "No," he replied, "I have now a tie that for some good behavior which had parbinds me here; my doubts must be remo- ticularly pleased me. On that cursed ocved before I leave this place: if my sus picians are groundless, I shall have nothing to detain me; if otherwise, Oh! know not what I can do, yet I will not depart without making an effort to relain her from her lost condition."

casion were sown the seeds of a passion for dramatic performances, which sprung up and ripened with fearful rapidity. She had at the age of fifteen, read every play in the modern lan: uages worth perusing. Some private theatricals, which I unwil Hitherto we had encountered no one in lingly encouraged, confirmed the bias of our walk, but, opposite fort St. Charles, her mind. That she possessed eminent whose white walls and green mounds lay genius for the stage cannot be denied; but in the moonlight, a stone's cast to our left, was it therefore incumbent on me to aswe saw a man coming slowly up the le sent to her adoption of a discreditable vee; he approached us, I recognised the profession, which I abhorred, and thus old man, who had been the subject of my throw away upon a selfish world the treaclose observation, and with whom, some sure I had been hoarding for years-my singular sympathy seemed to connect us. only child? No: not if I had been assured felt intensely interested in satisfying my that her talents and success would have suspicions in relation to this strange indi- procured her the fame of Siddons. Knowvidual. I requested Augus to scrutinize ing all this, she kept her projects profoundhis face keenly as we passed him, and ly secret, I indulged her unsuspectingly then managed to throw myself in his way, with constant visits to the theatre. About so as to bring us both to a halt, for a time eight months since, one fatal night upon long enough to afford my friend. the desi- which she had gone thither, her companred opportunity of scanning the face of ions returned in alarm without her.-I the stranger, The recognition I expected hurried in quest of her, still blind to the took place, and the mutual astonishment dreadful truth; but I neither discovered of both parties was, inexpressible, when, nor heard of her, till her announcement a in the clear moonlight, my companion dis- week afterward. to appear upon the New coveted the features of the father of Miss York boards, under the assumed name Dartmore, and the old man more slowly she now bears. When I recovered from

the insanity to which the shock of this in-alone."-"You," said the old man with intelligence.drove me, a spirit took posses- credulous emphasis," you attempt her dission of my soul which quelled the dispo- engagement from her present career, sition to hurry after and reclaim her by what motives have you, if she is nought to persuasion or force. I said let her go. me now, what can she be to you?” “EveFor five months I shut myself up from the ry thing," he answered, "have you forgot world: the sympathy and condolence of ten how, when children, we idolized each my nearest friends were heart sickening other? Since childhood I have never be to me. Confinement, however, became held her; but she has ever been before my intolerable to my restless misery. I came eye in anticipation and in soul my wife. hither, for the spot was remote from the Her present conduct and condition are home I could not endure, and its climate therefore to me the sources of affliction was one, whose pestilential terrors I cour- and shame scarce inferior to your own. ted rather than shunned; for of what va- But her value is undiminished in my view, lue is life to one bereaved as I am? Lit- for I believe her still as innocent as when tle did I expect to be followed here by her. she left your roof; and that an infatuating When I learned she was to appear to- delusion of the fancy has made her what night, my rooted indignation struggled she is. I cannot yet relinquish the hope vainly against a parent's pride in the beau- of realizing that happiness with her, to ty, genius, and attractions of his child, which I have for years looked forward." and my feet bore me involuntarily to the The father slightly shook his head. "Your house, where I was to behold her in that expectations of reforming a disobedient character, her assumption of which was child are vain. She is no more my daugh the cause of all my misery. While she ter. I have no interest in aught that constood before me, the agonizing conflict of cerns her. Do what you deem fit. I bea thousand opposing emotions, wholly un- lieve your intentions towards her to be manned me. The perfection of her per- good and honourable; but, were they formance would sometimes beguile me in- otherwise, I should not call you, to acto forgetfullness of the sad reality, and I count for them. She has thrown herself alternately, shared in the feeling of my open to the libertine and joined herself to fellow spectators, and became absorbed the profligate, and what is it to me to in those peculiarly my own. Often did I whom she falls a prey? would that I could strive to break the spell, that bound me to banish her existence from my mind. I my seat; but an enchanting infatuation must leave you now. This place will not kept me fast. My weakness in seeking contain me long. I must fly from her as the sight of my unworthy offspring, is the she once fled from me." subject of self-exasperation and reproach. Further remonstrance was manifestly We never meet again." useless. We offered to accompany him "Say not so," earnestly exclaimed Au- to his residence, but he declined our progus, "but rather that you will delay not a posal and left us while we returned tomoment in those endeavors to bring her gether to my own house. As we parted back to you, which if made in season for the night, I said to Augus, "God speed might have, nay I could swear would, your plans; command my aid in their exhave been assuredly successful."—"No," ecution. Above all be quick, that you replied the old man, his features fixing may escape hence for. I tremble hourly for themselves in stern inflexibility, "my re you and for her also. Draw on me for solves are not thus wavering; they are the whatever the absence of your baggage fruits of a long and agonizing struggle be- may render essential."

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tween the weakness of natural affection "What has your consultation with your and the strength of proud and high princi- pillow suggested," I inquired when we pled duty to myself; let her know the met in the morning; "in a matter of feeldifference between the parent, whom she ing like this I leave you to your own counhas abandoned to hopeless wretchedness, sel."

and the world upon which she has volun- "All that I have determined upon," he tarily cast herself." "Then," said Augus, replied, "is to obtain an interview; I have "I must enter upon the work unaided and not framed one argument to be urged, one

persuasion to be employed; one sentence from the boy to the man, I still recognize to be uttered; I cast myself upon her heart you as Augus Wallingford, the companion and those impassioned impulses which will of some of the happiest hours of my childexcite me in her presence." He restlessly hood. I must then," she added with a awaited the proper hour for his visit and playful air, "acknowledge your claims to then inquired the way to her lodging, a re- acquaintanceship." She met my profferspectable boarding house in St. Anne street ed hand. The pressure was to ine deliciHe thus described afterwards to me what ous. We seated ourselves, and after a followed. "I awaited her appearance, moment's silence, I mastered my thoughts with a throbbing heart and whirling brain. and words, sufficient to enter upon my deYet the occasion called for consumate licate subject. I remarked upon the management and self command. In what strange coincidence of our meeting in this character should I address her? I could distant place. I spoke of the danger she not declare myself her father's delegate, incurred and conjured her to fly from it. for he had disowned her. I must act up- As I proceed, the ardor of my feelings, on my own responsibility, and brave the fed by the fuel of her glowing beauty, reproach of impertinent interference with hurried me to that, from the mention of her actions, Should I remonstrate with which I had at first shrunk. I recalled the her as friend or plead with her as a lover? period of our early intimacy, and assured My childish affection for her had been her that the childish fondness of my infan warmly reciprocated, but maturity seldom cy had ripened into the matured affection retains the traces of infantile feeling, and of manhood. I told her my hopes long in speaking to her in the language of pas- cherished, though till now unrevealed, and sion, I ran a fearful risk of contemptuous 1,besought her not to blast, but to bless repulse. Further reflection was cut short them, by consenting to exchange her pre by her appearance. What a vision of sent fatal though facinating carreer. for beauty burst upon my sight; how unlike one in which happiness of a purer, etter those of her profession, who look like an- sort would become the portion of us both. gels on the stage and withered witches off She listened with a changing counte

it. Attired in all the toilette's trickery, nance, from whose fluctuations I alternateand acting for applause in every look, she ly gathered good and evil omens. At dazzled the sense; but habited as now in length I paused, when rising she replied modest white, with a single rose among with dignity, "I would consider your althe clustering ringlets on her temples and lusion to that profession I have from choice her neck, she melted the soul. I saw be- adopted, as an unwarrantable interference fore me the matured image of my boyish with that which concerns myself alone, love. I arose trembling in every nerve; did not the sentiments and intentions with I opened my lips without the power of ar- which you honor me, absolve you from ticulation; her eyes sunk under my regard the censure of impertinent officiousness; and her face became suffused with crim- of the feelings, with which your abrupt son. The intense struggle of an instant declaration of those sentiments have inspithen enabled me to say, "I cannot apolo- red me, must be pardoned for saying more gize with sufficient humility for this intru- than that I am truly grateful for your flatsion, and the object of which, I fear, I shall tering estimate of myself and your interbe as little able to justify in your eyes; but est in my wellare." She retired before before I name myself, you will indulge me I could say another word. For a moment by one effort to recollect in me an old I reproached myself for not urging my soacquaintance." The rapid recovery of licitations by a disclosure of her father's her self possession, bespoke the presence unhappy situation; but the hope and pride of mind with; her, avocations had already of being, the sole instrument in the change given her. The earnest, yet modest scru- I am striving to effect, have determined tiny of a moment, seemed to awaken her me to reserve this argument until the last recollections. "I seldom forget a face And now tell me what you think of my have once thoroughly known," she said chance." I talked to him I talked to him encouragingly with charming frankness, "though the for Ithought his enterprize commendable lapse of many years and your change and, gifted as he was such recommenda