Maude had no difficulty in finding the opportunity she sought for. Unlike Sir Basil, Hugh appeared by no means satisfied with the bare assurance that the invalid was so much better that the doctor might be countermanded. "I wish I saw you more alarmed, Maude. I can quite understand it is one of those nervous illnesses people are slow to confess to; but surely it would be wiser to be on the safe side, and have Selby to see her." "I should think so, I assure you, were I not certain Lucy was round the corner, and in the fair way to convalescence. She has confided to me her complaint. I pledge myself to set it all to rights; and hope you don't doubt my word or skill. But you have reason to be uneasy about her, as you are the cause of it all." 66 'Forgive me, Maude, but the matter is too serious for trifling. And how can I possibly have anything to do with Miss Winter's illness ?" Hugh muttered something between his teeth, and his brow got dark. "It seems he has had the audacity to admire her for long, and the other evening "Stop, Maude. It is very clear Miss Winter would have given much to keep all this to herself, and it cost her bitterly to unbosom herself, even to you. You must see it would be the grossest indelicacy and ingratitude were I to add to her pain by intruding on her secrets, or listening to what I have no right to hear. Tell her what you please. Say I asked no questions, and desired to know nothing more than you chose to tell me. Only, whatever you say, do not let her think her warning was a needless one, and that she has gone through all this misery for nothing. Say everything in the way of thanks, and above all assure her I shall keep on my guard." "You are noble and considerate, as you always were, Hugh," said Maude, reaching At the same time his heart fluttered a lit-out her hand to him. "At least, Mr. tle, and with all his unfeigned concern not altogether unpleasantly. "You directly, and indirectly your friend Hemprigge. I can hardly forgive you, Hugh, for ever bringing that man here. However, I daresay you have more cause than any of us to regret making his acquaintance, so I shall say no more about that. He hates you, Hugh; and that is what Lucy found out, and the foolish child has been frightening herself to death about it ever since." "I have long known he does not like me. But how should Miss Winter come to guess it ? and why should she have hesitated to tell me, if she had interest enough in me to induce her to take the matter to heart at all ?" She had it from his own lips and looks. Oh, she has told me all: so you may believe me, if there is anything in his enmity to alarm you, there is good ground for alarm." "If Miss Winter is intimate enough with Mr. Hemprigge to share his inmost secrets, I must say I think she is bound to keep them to herself," rejoined Hugh gloomily. Maude began to appreciate Mr. Hemprigge's perspicacity, and to fear, that, on the whole, although placed in an awkward dilemma, she could serve her friend better by over-candour than excess of caution. "Don't start at shadows, Hugh. You know, as well as I do, there can be nothing whatever in common between the two. It is sullying Lucy to name her in the same breath with him. If he forgot himself, it was because she showed her disgust only too frankly." Hemprigge has not 'spoiled you." "Noble, do you say, and living in friendly intercourse with him, and in this business he helped me to! As for him, he shall repent this the longest day 66 Stay, Hugh. I don't say it for your sake, but for Lucy's - you must not make a quarrel of this. He is quick to suspect and put things together. We know his malice, and you both have cause to dread his tongue. Reptiles are hard to crush; and he might do some one a mischief that nothing could repair." That argument seemed to strike Hugh, and stagger him. "Then," she went on jesuitically, "remember, although he did lose his temper, and spoke as only a coarse-minded man could speak, it was under excessively mor tifying circumstances; and if he was atrociously impertinent, he apologized promptly and amply. So far as that goes, Lucy ought to be silent, and you could only do her att injury by putting yourself forward as her champion. If you have anything to resent, it is his expression of animosity towards yourself." "As for that, he may do his worst. I defy him to hurt me, and were ours ordinary business relations, I should be content to go on meeting him on the distant footing I have banished him to, and continue to tolerate him as I have done. But we were friends in a fashion once: I blush to remember it. I owe him obligations, too, although he helped me for his own ends, and hoped to use me as a cat's-paw. The business world has learned to identify us in a manner, and I often loathe my very prosperity, Maude, | Company. He brooded over the scene bewhen I recollect it is partly of his creation. tween him and Lucy. His intelligence He knows well be can always sting me by worked up Maude's hints into a tolerably reminding me of it. He has fixed me in faithful representation of all that had passed. golden fetters, and they jingle and gall me As was natural, however, the more he at each step I take. To think I am trifling brooded, the blacker grew the colours knowingly all this time with my honour for Hemprigge figured in, and the grosser the that accursed money of Miss Childersleigh!" brutality of his language. Perhaps it might The spirit of unworldliness embodied in have been better for him had his delicacy Lucy had never rested on him so strongly, been smaller, or had he suffered Maude to and it nerved him for the moment with the be more outspoken. For, in his knowledge impetuous force of a Berserker. The fit of the world and its inmates, he would have was on him, and he was almost resolved to seen that Hemprigge was not altogether the break out of Hemprigge's golden bands, to monster his heated imagination and temper burst all the bonds old hopes and old habits had pictured him, but simply what he had had shackled him in. Had it been Lucy he always suspected and long known him for had been talking with, the inspiration of her an unscrupulous, vulgar-minded, evil-tempresence might have wrought him to wisdom pered man, spoiled by prosperity and irrior to madness, and the deed would have tated by jealousy. But if his fancy sketches been done. Maude, with all her world- of Hemprigge, his rehearsals of his demeanliness, had never admired him so much. our and language, roused his passions, the Perhaps for the time being, she forgot her pathetic portraits he drew himself of Lucy adventure in the fogs of Killoden, and the unspeakably touched his heart. When his dreams that came of it, and remembered and own griefs or loves inspire him, a man's art regretted a morning-scene in the garden- and eloquence are wonderfully self-moving walk at "The Cedars." But she had been and self-seductive. There, at least, there brought up her father's daughter, and she was no danger of deceiving himself; he had felt to Lucy differently from Hugh. When the materials all ready to his hand. Her it was a question of friendship, she was too shy suffering face haunted him as he had conscientiously practical to encourage any seen it last, and he could not forget it was one whose welfare she interested herself in he who had been the cause of her sorrows. the indulgence of sentiments, however ad- He thought of her as an Andromeda chained mirable, at a price so heavy. to the rock in helpless grace and beauty; of Hemprigge as the monster who, disappointed of her and her charms, delighted himself with her tears and her terrors. her kindness for himself he did not call it love- she had provoked their common enemy, and with all the strength, if he cared to put it forth, he had neither the chivalry nor the courage to come to the rescue. Yet was not Maude right, and what could he do? If he attempted to act the Perseus, his thrusts would recoil on himself, and he should only play the enemy's game. The many who envied him his great fortune guessed little of his frame of mind. Amid all his real prosperity, he told himself he was still garnering the old crops of wild oats, paying the penalties of early indiscre tions, and suffering for the questionable And the spirit of worldly wisdom having companionship in which he had sought to answered the promptings of the angel of extricate himself from them. He unworldliness, and left her last shaft quiver-proached himself with having wilfully closed ing in the very clout of the target, cut short his eyes to his ally's character, in the conthe conversation with a sense of reproachful fidence that if he proved a rogue he could self-humiliation. nevertheless use him with clean hands. It is not so easy, as he reflected bitterly, to work with pitch, and yet keep yourself from defilement. The man had been his tool, indeed; but even useful tools may hurt the hands that wield them. He might have been "Do nothing hastily, Hugh. By waiting a month or two you may spare yourself the regrets of a lifetime. The time of your probation is nearly at an end, and do not, from an overstrained sense of honour, throw lightly away all you have toiled and schemed for. No one but yourself, believe me, sees Mr. Hemprigge's fetters on your limbs. If you ever did owe him anything, he has wiped the debt out twenty times over. Remember, too, if you renounce the prize when your hand is stretched out to grasp it, you serve his antipathies and wishes beyond his hopes. No; if you mean to punish him, and I must say he richly deserves it, persevere until September, and then you are absolutely your own master to act as you please." Maude was quite right in trusting much to her parting shot. Nothing short of such an argument would have held Hugh back from an open quarrel with Hemprigge, whatever the consequences to himself or his In re 66 should still keep his place in these, equally natural, consequently, that she should have foreseen this attention. Certain it is, that although not much given to nursing herself, and greatly relieved in mind and restored in body, she could not be prevailed on to leave her apartment until the visit had been announced and the visitor was gone; that Maude, although she thought her friend quite equal to the exertion of coming down-stairs, had only smiled when she re happier, he thought, had he carried the The Cedars." The last week or two had wreck of his fortunes to Nevada as he pro-woven him into Lucy's existence, and made posed, although they had been sunk there him the object of her thoughts and dreams in bottomless mines or gone to enrich and nightmares, and it was natural be western swindlers. With it all he toiled harder than ever in his business, but for distraction, not from pleasure. Never before had he longed so wearily for the goal towards which he had been struggling, not because he looked to find wealth at it, but liberty, and, if the truth must be told, vengeance. He who had valued money as much as most, had come to acknowledge it might be dearly come by; that in moneygetting, as in fox-hunting, the pleasure or pain is in the chase, and the object worth-fused, and not attempted to urge the point. less. Could Hemprigge have guessed the secrets of that outwardly impassive nature, he might have had the doubtful comfort of assuring himself that his malignity had made the man he detested marvellously indifferent to the winning of the great prize he had first taught him to hope for, and that, even were it won, the winning it from first to last would be mainly due to him. But this painful proof that her health had been rudely shaken brought Mr. Childersleigh there again the following day, and at an hour, too, when he had never before been known to quit his business avocations for the calls of society; Maude, glancing at her companion, when the door of the morning-room was thrown open and Mr. Chil dersleigh was announced, saw her start and crimson to the temples. But Mr. Childersleigh's eyes carefully avoided the invalid's face, and after the briefest and most matter While Hugh was holding his hand for fear of his blow recoiling on himself to the pleasure of his enemy, Hemprigge's ill-advised stroke at Lucy had lighted on the in-of-course inquiries, he directed his looks dividual that gentleman loved so very dearly. Hugh had immense self-control, or he could not have gone on meeting the Manager as they did meet. But he called his self-control by a harsher, perhaps a juster name; and when the two had had that last interview we recorded, much more than Hemprigge's sneers, it was the feeling he was lowering himself to an equality with the man he so cordially despised, that made him hold the tone he did, and issue those embarrassing and insulting instructions. Yet really he had begun the battle, when he thought he had only shown his readiness for it, and taken the first active steps in an interchange of injuries. Meanwhile gratitude bad, at least, kept pace with resentment, and sent him the day after the dinner on an errand of inquiry to and conversation exclusively to Maude, and cut his stay very short indeed. Uncivil as it seemed, Lucy appeared to understand it, and actually felt more warmly to him for his neglect than she had done before for actual benefits. Had she resented it, perhaps the apologetic pressure on her hand, when he took his leave, would have made his peace. As for Maude, she had been studying lately under a tutor of her own, but even without the deepening flush on Lucy's face, she would have been just as certain of the pressure as if she had felt it. She looked on in demure silence, and che sarà, sarà, was her philosophical reflection. Strong and sensible as her character was, it had its weaknesses; and partial friendship and sympathetic feelings were beginning to demoralize her. THE Armenian prelates, whose flight from Rome we have already noticed, discharged a Parthian dart at the authorities. At the last moment they had the Pontifical arins removed from their abode and replaced by the crescent and star of Turkey, supported by a French tricolour. The change must have been roughly and hastily performed, and must have been effected in a courtyard concealed from the public view; but it has answered its evident purpose, and has made many Reverences and Eminences gnash their teeth with indignation. There is, however, one great comfort, as the newspapers of these grave potentates at once inform the world, and it is this - all prelates who leave Rome during the Council without the Pope's special permission are irremediably excommunicated. Some minds are grateful for small blessings; others can only be satisfied by mighty curses. Translated from the Gartenlaube for the Living Age. | band with power and firmness, gave me a THE REHEARSAL OF THE MIRACLE PLAY AT OBERAMMERGAU IN 1870, shrill greeting. I seemed to have hit the right moment, for the talkative postilion confided to me, as I alighted, that thirty A RUSTLING Sound is heard, whispering, men, who formed the musical troup of through the newspaper forests with their Ammergau, were at that moment practising many forms and colours, that the inhabitants the march, with which, according to ancient of the village of Oberammergau in the Ba- custom, their guests were welcomed on the varian Highlands, are again preparing their evening before the plays, and which also Passion Play," the wide fame of which waked them on the mornings of the same. will probably bring a great stream of specI was soon seated in the corner of the tators from distant lands; all the greater plain guest-room, undisturbed by anyone's from the fact, that the representation is only noticing the stranger, who might well be given once in every ten years. Having taken for a travelling clerk, the designation heard, in 1860, with some doubt the accounts they are fond of giving to all business travof its success, I also turned my steps ellers in the country. Meanwhile I had towards the mountains, to see and hear for leisure to contemplate the room and the. myself what truth there was in the report, company, with the aid of a glass of Murand learn how much religious ecstacy, or nauer beer, which, if it is of like good quality how much exaggeration, really took place. at the time of the Miracle Play, will go far What I wrote at that time for the Garten- to reinstate the drooping fame of the Bavalaube, proved that my brightest expectations rian national drink. The ceiling of the were not only fulfilled, but far surpassed. wainscoted room is old, and along its I had long determined to see the play once rafters is placed a row of carved escutcheons more, and to find out if the same impression -- a remembrance of the times when the comwas conveyed. I wished still more to dis-merce of the world passed, from the south, cover how the solution of so deep a problem through Partenkirchen and Ammergau, and was worked out by a little village commu- the Ammergauers received an Imperial nity, how that astonishing effect was ob-grant, that all wares should be stored and tained, the remembrance of which is as fresh carried further on their way by them alone. in my mind as it was ten years ago. I The full stream of commerce and riches wanted to trace this to its source, in short, has long since floated away, and left no sign to learn the process by which such a result of its existence, save the arms of the merwas attained. Although there was a well- chants and bale-carriers. The persons in founded report, that the Ammergau peas- the room with me had a peculiar stamp, ants did not like to have their preparations quite different from that one is accustomed and practising watched by strange eyes, to meet in villages. The greater part confrom a modest appreciation of their position sisted of young people, who entertained and capabilities, and the idea that they gave themselves with card-playing, in an interestwhat they could, and only expressed what ed but quiet manner. The typical grey they felt, yet I determined to make the jacket, with standing collar, was the only attempt. provincial thing about them. The shape of In spite of the bitter winter, which I the head, the long waving hair, the wellfeared would be sharper and colder in the cared-for beards, made me think of a party mountains, I set out for Ammergau, and of painters and art-students. This compar climbed among black pines groaning under ison is not, indeed, an unfair one, for, since their load of snow, and bare beeches which, the former wells of business were dried up, by the sudden arrival of winter, had not the occupation of wood-carving has taken been allowed time wholly to shake off their its place in Ammergau, and is carried on at dry, red-brown leaves-then along the present by more than three-quarters of the frozen Starnberg lake, that looked like a inhabitants. Many of them were evidently gigantic mirror, and so to the impenetrable to take part in the Miracle Play, and had clouds, behind which the mountains sat already begun conforming their outward proudly and invisibly enthroned, till I appearance to their intended characters. reached the foot of the Peissenberg. Late I found out by a little superficial quesin the evening, a post-omnibus, and then tioning, that every Sunday a rehearsal for a post-wagon, brought me to the end the play was held, and every Thursday one of my winter journey, and set me down be-for the music, and that at those times half fore the friendly door of the renowned of the Play was performed. The next day "Schwabenwirth." In spite of the snow-was Sunday, and if I did not wish to spend storm, a long row of lighted windows glim- my time in vain, I must hasten directly to mered above, and a march, executed by a the parsonage, a cloister-like deserted building, that certainly does not make an from the usual method of handling plays. It was equally clear, whence arose the extraordinary effect, which must be conceded to the acting of these simple villagers. First of all the conviction was forced upon me, that the gravity of the subject, the weight of which moves a whole world, was impressed upon all the preparations, and stripped them of the haste, restlessness and distraction of mind, which belong to an ordinary rehearsal. The players do not think they are acting something which is far beyond them; in their parts they speak like themselves; they give their own simple sensations without any art, without any study and, in this complete ingenuousness and simplicity, lies the secret of a truth to nature, artistically unattainable, and by it the effect is produced. No manager superintends the course of the scenes; no inspector watches over their regular succession; there is no need, for all listen and look on, in silent anticipation, and each person moves or speaks at the proper moment. The prompter was scarcely obliged to correct even a slight omission. Every speech was uttered without hesitation, and at exactly the right time; each movement was significant, and, in spite of the unfavourable surroundings, preventing a full development, even the great group-scenes While lingering over my mid-day meal, I were carried out with a quietness and cerdiscovered that they were preparing for a re-tainty which excited astonishment. Thus, hearsal, from the number of persons coming and going; but nobody seemed to want me. A quarter of an hour passed, and then others; till, thinking of the superscription over Dante's Hell, I had almost given up all hope, when the parish servant, or watchman, appeared to lead me to the much desired goal. I reached at last an exceedingly long hall, formed by throwing down some partitions, but crammed with men, and found myself in the midst of the actors already in the ful! tide of rehearsing. At a table sat the Priest, with his predecessor, the Ecclesiastical Councillor Daisenberger, whom we have.to thank for the text of the for example, in the scene of the seizure of Jesus upon the Mount of Olives, when sudden confusion comes upon the frightened soldiers with the quickness of lightning, on being brought face to face with Him, they fall one over the other, and yet the groups are well arranged, and all is done without a syllable beyond the dialogue, or a sign being given. The director of an ordinary stage has to prepare, command and swear, in order to get the scenes properly arranged, and how far is any result he may attain behind what is here accomplished. The explanation is, however, close at hand. Neither vanity nor the desire of gain Miracle Play in its present form and ar- brings these actors together; they consider rangement, and who, after an active life of it the fulfilment of a moral duty, and give twenty-five years, had contented himself themselves, body and soul, to the work. with a modest benefice, in order not to leave In their rendering of the Miracle Play, in the village, that had become his home. their grasp of each scene and character, One of the peasants, sitting near, had the there is a stability arising from tradition, Play-book open before him, and followed which, as a common possession, preserved the words. That I might not disturb them, in the memory, exists throughout the neighI made a slight inclination, retired to a win-bourhood, so that it can be said, withdow, and was soon entirely absorbed in the Play, the like of which I had never beheld. I had already seen and joined in many rehearsals, but it was clear to me, at the first glance, that this was entirely different out exaggeration, that the different actors know all the parts by heart, as well as the manner and fashion in which each scene should be carried out. Every situation, every group has its historical treatment, and |