curtain, whereby the play is made to last some eight or ten hours longer
than would otherwise be the case. Most of the German music that has been
written during the last three centuries is played by the orchestra
during these intermissions. But in course of time SEEBACH gives us the
Garden scene, winning our frantic admiration by her inimitable
tenderness and grace, and finally we reach that grandest scene ever
written by dramatist, that most pathetic poem ever conceived by
poet--the meeting of "FAUST" and "MARGARET" in prison. At last we are
more than repaid for the dreary hours that have gone before. We have
seen SEEBACH'S "MARGARET"--the most powerful, the most pathetic, the
most beautiful, the most perfect creation of the stage.

And as we pass slowly up the tortuous, steep stairways of the theatre,
while the Germans, all talking at once, burden the air with
unintelligible gutturals, you say to me--if you are the intelligent
person that you ought to be--"SEEBACH is the greatest actress of this
century--greater than RISTORI, subtler and more tender than RACHEL."

With which opinion the undersigned concurs with all the emphasis of
conviction; and over our late breakfast, to which we immediately sit
down, we discuss the question, Which is the greatest--the poet who drew
"MARGARET," or the actress who made the poet's picture warm with
passionate life?

MATADOR.

* * * * *

Absolutely True.