"By heaven, you do me wrong!

Othello asks her if this charge be not true; she drops upon her knees, and, lifting up her arms and her beauteous face to heaven, fervently replies,

"No! as I am a Christian !
No! as I shall be saved!"

There was so much reality in the action, the guileless countenance, the heaven-appealing tone, that it thrilled the whole audience. The repeated "rounds," that testified their recognition of the true Promethean spark, were followed by a loud, long cheer.

When Othello, in the succeeding speech, applies to his wife a term of worst opprobrium, she falls upon the ground, as though the word had been "shot from the deadly level of a gun," and murdered her. Othello summons Emilia, and leaves his prostrate wife to her care. Emilia raises her friend. Desdemona's mind seems confused by the sorrows which she yet makes a feeble effort to hide. Then, moved by a sudden thought, she bids Emilia call Iago.. Desdemona imagines that he may explain Othello's conduct. Iago appears before her; but, when she would repeat to him the insulting epithet used by her husband, her modest tongue refuses its office, — the word cannot pass her pure lips. She weeps in silence, while Emilia descants upon the brutality of the Moor. But the young wife's affection is not shaken; "her love doth so approve him, that even his stubbornness, his checks and frowns, have grace and favor in them." She never dreams of blaming

or reproaching him; her whole thoughts are engrossed with plans to win him back. She rushes to Iago in a paroxysm of agony, and cries out,

O, good Iago!

What shall I do to win my lord again?

Good friend, go to him! for, by this light of heaven,
I know not how I lost him! Here I kneel:
If e'er my will did trespass 'gainst his love,
Either in discourse of thought or actual deed;
Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense,
Delighted them in any other form;

Or, that I do not yet, and ever did,

And ever will, though he do shake me off

To beggarly divorcement, love him dearly,
Comfort forswear me ! Unkindness may do much;
And his unkindness may defeat my life,

But never taint my love!"

Stella's utterance of these lines was sublime in its pathos. As the kneeling girl was raised by Mrs. Fairfax, at the conclusion of the speech, the latter could not refrain from whispering "Good! good! beautifully given! You are indeed an actress!"

The intention was most kind, but its effect unfortunate. The encomium recalled Stella to herself. It broke the dream; she was Desdemona no longer. She suddenly became constrained and awkward; it was fortunate that the scene drew rapidly to its close.

The exceeding length of the play requires the omission of a most charming dialogue between Emilia and Desdemona, at the conclusion of the fourth act, one which is essential to the perfect development of Desdemona's character.

In the fifth act, Desdemona is beheld asleep. She is waked by Othello's bending over her to taste

"The balmy breath that doth almost persuade

Justice to break her sword."

Her terror, the vehement affirmations of her innocence, her frantic pleadings for a few moments more of life, make up the scene. Stella was not prepared for the violence with which Mr. Tennent thrust the pillow over her face, holding it firmly on either side. Her stifled shrieks might well sound natural to the audience; she felt as though she were suffocating in reality. But the more she struggled, the more tightly the unreflecting tragedian pressed upon her mouth. It was her duty to lie still before he could relinquish his hold. Well was it that Emilia's voice at the chamber door required him to reply. Stella lay with the pillow over her face; and, being dead, or nearly so, to the audience, she dared not. move. In a choking tone, by no means simulated, she groaned out, in advance of her cue, the few words that cause Emilia to fly to her mistress. Mrs. Fairfax not only removed the pillow, but placed the young girl in a more comfortable position.

Poor

Stella could now lie still, and listen to the scene. She expected to remain in the same attitude until the curtain fell; but Othello, when the certainty of Desdemona's innocence was forced upon him, sprang to her side, seized her in his arms, half dragged her from the bed, and sank upon the ground himself, leaving her head hanging over the side of the couch. Her long hair swept the floor; he wound his fingers in the tresses, and pressed them to his lips, and

moaned aloud. The picture was, no doubt, one that Mr. Tennent had well studied, and certainly it was very beautiful, very truthful. Its effect upon the luckless representative of Desdemona was entirely disregarded.

The blood rushed to her head until her brain seemed bursting, crushed by a mountain-load. Her senses were leaving her; it was with the greatest difficulty that she could repress a cry. Every instant appeared an hour; she could no longer distinguish the language declaimed in her very ears; she heard only a confused sound. She could endure no more; she tried to groan, to move, but in vain. When the curtain descended, she was found unconscious.

Mr. Finch was in the act of carrying her to her dressing-room, when remembrance slowly returned. For some time she could neither stand nor speak. She was wholly unable to respond to the summons before the curtain. An apology was made, and her absence accounted for by the plea of indisposition. Mrs. Fairfax had, fortunately, some knowledge of the newly discovered and most efficacious treatment of apoplexy (which the attack resembled); she seized a jug of water, and poured it from a height upon the head of the prostrate girl. Stella gradually revived, and was soon able to reässure the terrified Mattie by a few affectionate words. Soon after, the young girl was conveyed to her home.

CHAPTER VI.

An Energizing Will Conquering Physical Prostration. The Actor's Private Sufferings set aside. Rehearsal of Lady of Lyons. — Mystery that enveloped Mrs. Pottle's Straying into the Profession. — Her Peculiar Attainments. Amusing Eccentricities. Literal Translation of the Eminent Tragedian's Command. Merriment of the Actors.

Wrath of Mr. Ten

nent. - Mrs. Pottle's Efforts to "Back Up."- Fisk's Exuberant Delight. Company assembled in Green-Room for Reading of New Play. — Murmurs. The Author's Entrance.

The Reading. Disrespectful Treatment of Mr. Percy by his Auditors. Distribution of Parts. Mrs. Pottle's Queenly Honors. Mr. Percy's Discomposure. Disparaging Remarks and Complaints. — Perdita redeems her Promise. The Young Ballet-Girl's View of Life and Death. Rainy Evening. Skyey Influences. The Fictitious Bouquet. The Tragedian's Abstraction. Involuntary Asides of Claude. - Mr. Martin. — Mind over Matter. Which is Victorious in an Actor's Life. Stella's Personation of the Lady of Inevitable Shortcomings of a Novice. The Press Inconstancy of the Public. A New Idol lifted to Lydia Talbot's Pedestal. — Honeyed Poison. - Ingratitude the Consequence of Sudden Brilliant Success. Its Cure.

Lyons.
Aroused.

VERY weary were the eyes that Stella unclosed on the morrow. "Another morning! O, that I could rest!" And she turned upon her pillow, yielding for an instant to a delicious drowsiness. But the multitudinous occupations of the day crowded upon her remembrance; her energizing will conquered physical lassitude; she sprang up with a bound. A