'It will be checked,' he said to himself, 'by her beauty and all that flows from it.
She must come to depend more and more on the physical charm, and on that only.

The whole pressure of her success is and will be that way.' Miss Bretherton's inadequacy, indeed, became more and more visible as the play was gradually and finely worked up to its climax in the last act.

In the final scene of all, the Prince, who by a series of accidents has discovered the Countess Hilda's plans, lies in wait for her in the armoury, where he has reason to know she means to try the effect of a third and last apparition upon the Princess.

She appears; he suddenly confronts her; and, dragging her forward, unveils before himself and the Princess the death-like features of his old love.

Recovering from the shock of detection, the Countess pours out upon them both a fury of jealous passion, sinking by degrees into a pathetic, trance-like invocation of the past, under the spell of which the Prince's anger melts away, and the little Princess's terror and excitement change into eager pity.