And _now_--the English stage has laid its hold at last upon a great actress.' Madame de Chateauvieux's smiling reply was broken by the reappearance of Wallace, round whom the buzz of congratulation closed with fresh vigour.
'How is she ?' asked Madame de Chateauvieux, laying a hand on his arm.
'Tired ?' 'Not the least! But, of course, all the strain is to come.

It is amazing, you know, this reception.

It's almost more trying than the acting.

Forbes in the wings, looking on, is a play in himself!' In another minute the hubbub had swept out again, and the house had settled into silence.
Macias was the central figure of the second act.

In the great scene of explanation between himself and Elvira, after he had forced his way into her apartment, his fury of jealous sarcasm, broken by flashes of the old absolute trust, of the old tender worship, had been finely conceived, and was well rendered by the promising young actor, whom Wallace had himself chosen for the part, Elvira, overwhelmed by the scorn and despair of her lover, and, conscious of the treachery which has separated them, is yet full of a blind resolve to play the part she has assumed to the bitter end, to save her own name and her father's from dishonour, and to interpose the irrevocable barrier of her marriage vow between herself and Macias.