ANOTHER OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 151

a young actress ; the most beautiful of women, accord-
ing to report, and the most accomplished of actresses,
She had been abroad, in Petersburgh Paris, and
had created an extraordinary sensation there. Her
fame had come before her: people who had seen her
abroad raved about her in London, and now she was
come, in the month of May, in the full blaze of the
London season, and had at once taken the heart of
the whole town. Her portraits were in the windows ;
she set the fashion in caps and gowns ; her voice, her
attitudes, her smiles were the theme of every one’s
admiration ; but, more than all, was talked of her
beautiful character. Her life, it was said, had been
as strange as a fairy tale; she had gone through
poverty, hardship, and temptation of every kind, but
all had been unable to tarnish the pure gold of her
nature. She was, fame said, the most gifted and best
of human beings; people told endless anecdotes about
her; her life was so pure, yet brilliant, and people
were so enthusiastic about her, that one might have
thought her sent down from heaven to make goodness
fashionable.

Mrs. Williams, who had from principle a terror of
the stage, refused, spite of the entreaties of their
London acquaintance, to attend the theatre. Chance
had led them among a circle of people who were
most theatrically inclined, and who were going to one
theatre or another every night. Williams, who had
a strong desire to join them, declined, for some time,
from regard to his wife. She became aware, however,
at length, of the self-denial he had practised for her
sake, and insisted upon it that he should go to see this
wonderful phoenix, of which the world talked so
much. He was to accompany a party, which was to