of the Prince Wilhelm, on whose matrimonial prospects the play was to
turn. He was engaged in explaining the situation to his friend, Waldemar
von Rothenfels, the difficulties in which he was placed, his passion for
the Countess Hilda, the political necessities which forced him to marry a
daughter of the House of Würtemberg, the pressure brought to bear upon
him by his parents, and his own despair at having to break the news to
the Countess.

The story is broken off by the arrival of the royalties, including the
pink-and-white maiden who is to be Prince Wilhelm's fate, and the royal
quadrille begins. The Prince leads his Princess to her place, when it is
discovered that another lady is required to complete the figure, and an
_aide-de-camp_ is despatched into the ballroom to fetch one. He returns,
ushering in the beautiful Hilda von Weissenstein.

For this moment the audience had been impatiently waiting, and when the
dazzling figure in its trailing, pearl-embroidered robes appeared in the
doorway of the ballroom, a storm of applause broke forth again and again,
and for some minutes delayed the progress of the scene.

Nothing, indeed, could have been better calculated than this opening to
display the peculiar gifts of the actress. The quadrille was a stately
spectacular display, in which splendid dress and stirring music and the
effects of rhythmic motion had been brought freely into play for the
delight of the beholders. Between the figures there was a little
skilfully-managed action, mostly in dumb show. The movements of the
jealous beauty and of her faithless lover were invested throughout with
sufficient dramatic meaning to keep up the thread of the play. But it was
not the dramatic aspect of the scene for which the audience cared, it was
simply for the display which it made possible of Isabel Bretherton's