the Italian author left it, was good, and Wallace has enormously improved
upon it. Only--'

'Isn't it most dramatic?' she exclaimed, interrupting him; 'there are so
many strong situations in it, and though one might think the subject a
little unpleasant if one only heard it described, yet there is nothing in
the treatment but what is noble and tragic. I have very seldom felt so
stirred by anything. I find myself planning the scenes, thinking over
them this way and that incessantly.'

'It is very good and friendly of you,' said Kendal warmly, 'to wish me to
give you advice about it. Do you really want me to speak my full mind?'

'Of course I do,' she said eagerly; 'of course I do. I think there are
one or two points in it that might be changed. I shall press Mr. Wallace
to make a few alterations. I wonder what were the changes that occurred
to you?'

'I wasn't thinking of changes,' said Kendal, not venturing to look at her
as she walked beside him, her white dress trailing over the moss-grown
path, and her large hat falling back from the brilliant flushed cheeks
and queenly throat. 'I was thinking of the play itself, of how the part
would really suit you.'

'Oh, I have no doubts at all about that,' she said, but with a quick look
at him; 'I always feel at once when a part will suit me, and I have
fallen in love with this one. It is tragic and passionate, like the
_White Lady_, but it is quite a different phase of passion. I am tired of
scolding and declaiming. _Elvira_ will give me an opportunity of showing
what I can do with something soft and pathetic. I have had such