areer.

Happening, some seven years ago, to enter the ill-lighted, low-roofed
theatre of a third-rate French town, full five hundred miles from Paris,
we were struck and fascinated by the exquisite grace and feeling with
which an actress of the name of Albert enacted the part of a blind girl
in Frederick Soulie's painful drama of _Diane de Chivry_. The place of
so accomplished a performer was evidently on the Parisian boards, and we
learned with surprise, that she was on no mere starring expedition, but
had quitted the capital, where she was idolised, with a view to a long
stay in the provinces. It is rare that French actors who can obtain a
decent engagement at Paris, consent to waste their sweetness upon
provincials for more than a few nights in the year; and at the time, the
motives of Madame Albert's self-banishment, which has only recently
terminated, was to us a mystery. The explanation we subsequently heard
of it, agrees with that given by Mr. Hervey, and is most creditable to
the delicacy and good feeling of the actress who thus abandoned the
scene of her early triumphs to submit herself to the caprices and clumsy
criticisms of country audiences. She wished "to spare her husband--then
engaged in a subordinate capacity at the Theatre Francais, and who was
seldom spoken of otherwise than as 'the husband of Madame Albert of the
Vaudeville'--the mortification of seeing his own efforts completely cast
into the shade by those of his wife; and it was with the view of
associating him in future with her own successes that she determined on
refusing every proposal made to her by the different managers of the
capital, a task she persevered in until his death enabled her to return
without compunction to Paris, where her place had long been empty."
Eclipsed and unnoticed in the metropolis, M. Albert, whose real name was
Rodrigues, passed muster very well in country towns. Of his widow, who
has been seen and appreciated in London, we need say nothing. All who
have witnessed her delightful performances, will admit her to be one of
the most charming actresses of the day. Voice, face, figure, every thing
is in her favour; her popularity is as well established as her talent is
versatile and perfect. "She is cited," says Mr. Hervey, "as one of those
who, not more by their brilliant natural gifts than by their private
worth, have become ornaments of the profession to which they belong, and
who, whilst they can fairly claim universal