audience was enraptured. Never had Malibran
nor Pasta sung with expression and intonation so perfect. But at the
beginning of the second part she glanced over the glistening groups
and saw--Arthur. He never took his eyes from her face. A quick shudder
thrilled through her, and her voice faltered. Up hurried Mme. de Serizy
from her place.

"What is it, dear? Oh! poor little thing! she is in such weak health; I
was so afraid when I saw her begin a piece so far beyond her strength."

The song was interrupted. Julie was vexed. She had not courage to sing
any longer, and submitted to her rival's treacherous sympathy. There was
a whisper among the women. The incident led to discussions; they guessed
that the struggle had begun between the Marquise and Mme. de Serizy, and
their tongues did not spare the latter.

Julie's strange, perturbing presentiments were suddenly realized.
Through her preoccupation with Arthur she had loved to imagine that with
that gentle, refined face he must remain faithful to his first love.
There were times when she felt proud that this ideal, pure, and
passionate young love should have been hers; the passion of the young
lover whose thoughts are all for her to whom he dedicates every moment
of his life, who blushes as a woman blushes, thinks as a woman might
think, forgetting ambition, fame, and fortune in devotion to his
love,--she need never fear a rival. All these things she had fondly and
idly dreamed of Arthur; now all at once it seemed to her that her dream
had come true. In the young Englishman's half-feminine face she read
the same deep thoughts, the same pensive melancholy, the same passive
acquiescence in a painful lot, and an endurance like her own. She saw
herself in him. Trouble and sadness are the most eloquent of love's
interpreters, and response is marvelously swift between two suffering
creatures, for in them the powers of intuition and of assimilation of
facts and ideas are well-nigh unerring and perfect. So with the violence
of the shock the Marquise's eyes were opened to the whole extent of
the future danger. She was only too glad to find a pretext for her
nervousness in her chronic ill-health, and willingly submitted to be
overwhelmed by Mme. de Serizy's insidious compassion.

That incident of the song caused talk and discussion which differed with
the various groups. Some pitied Julie's fate, and regretted that such a
remarkable woman was lost to society; others fell to wonde