openness, a word
threw it into the most indignant storm, or the most incurable despair.
From wild joy, it was suddenly clouded with a weight of sorrow that
"refused to be comforted." His accents were singularly sweet, yet clear;
and, like his change of countenance, capable of the most rapid change
from cheerfulness to the agonies of a breaking heart. His charm was
reality; the power to carry away the audience with him into the scene of
the moment. I had not been five minutes looking at him, when I was as
completely in the Mauritius, as if I had been basking in its golden
sunshine, and imbibing the breeze from fair palms.

But his fascination and ours was complete when Virginie appeared.
Nothing could be less artificial than her costume; the simple dress of
Bengalese blue cloth, a few cowrie shells round her neck, and a shell
comb fastening up the braids of profusion of raven hair. She came
floating rather than walking down the mountain path; and her first few
words, when Paul rushed forward and knelt to kiss her feet, and the half
playful, half fond air with which she repelled him, seemed to me the
most exquisite of all performances. I observed, too, that her style had
more nature in it than that of Talma. I had till then forgotten that he
was an actor; but, placed beside her, I could have almost instinctively
pronounced that Paul was a Frenchman and Virginie a Creole. I whispered
the remark to Elnathan, who answered, "that I was right in point of
fact; for the representative of Virginie, though not a native of the
Mauritius, was of tropical birth, the widow of a French noble, who had
married her in the colonies and who had been one of the victims of the
Revolution."

"And yet an amateur actress?"

"Yes; but we never ask such questions in France. Every body does the
same. You should see one of our 'bals a la victime,' in which the
express qualification for a ticket is having lost a relative by the
guillotine."

"But who is this charming woman?"

"A woman of birth and fortune, of charming talents, and supposed at this
moment to exercise the highest influence with the most influential
personage of the government;--even the bewitching Madame de Fontenai has
given way to her supremacy."

I observed, "That though neither could compete with English beauty in
point of features, there was a singular fascination in both--their
countenances seemed remarkably connected with the play of their minds.

"There is still a dis