there was to be a first appearance on the stage of lord monmouth’s theatre to-night, the expectation of which created considerable interest in the party, and was one of the principal subjects of conversation at dinner. villebecque, the manager of the troop, had married the actress stella, once celebrated for her genius and her beauty; a woman who had none of the vices of her craft, for, though she was a fallen angel, there were what her countrymen style extenuating circumstances in her declension. with the whole world at her feet, she had remained unsullied. wealth and its enjoyments could not tempt her, although she was unable to refuse her heart to one whom she deemed worthy of possessing it. she found her fate in an englishman, who was the father of her only child, a daughter. she thought she had met in him a hero, a demi-god, a being of deep passion and original and creative mind; but he was only a voluptuary, full of violence instead of feeling, and eccentric, because he had great means with which he could gratify extravagant whims. stella found she had made the great and irretrievable mistake. she had exchanged devotion for a passionate and evanescent fancy, prompted at first by vanity, and daily dissipating under the influence of custom and new objects. though not stainless in conduct, stella was pure in spirit. she required that devotion which she had yielded; and she separated herself from the being to whom she had made the most precious sacrifice. he offered her the consoling compensation of a settlement, which she refused; and she returned with a broken spirit to that profession of which she was still the ornament and the pride.
the animating principle of her career was her daughter, whom she educated with a solicitude which the most virtuous mother could not surpass. to preserve her from the stage, and to secure for her an independence, were the objects of her mother’s life; but nature whispered to her, that the days of that life were already numbered. the exertions of her profession had alarmingly developed an inherent tendency to pulmonary disease. anxious that her child should not be left without some protector, stella yielded to the repeated solicitations of one who from the first had been her silent admirer, and she married villebecque, a clever actor, and an enterprising man who meant to be something more. their union was not of long duration, though it was happy on the side of villebecque, and serene on that of his wife. stella was recalled from this world, where she had known much triumph and more suffering; and where she had exercised many virtues, which elsewhere, though not here, may perhaps be accepted as some palliation of one great error.
villebecque acted becomingly to the young charge which stella had bequeathed to him. he was himself, as we have intimated, a man of enterprise, a restless spirit, not content to move for ever in the sphere in which he was born. vicissitudes are the lot of such aspirants. villebecque became manager of a small theatre, and made money. if villebecque without a sou had been a schemer, villebecque with a small capital was the very chevalier law of theatrical managers. he took a larger theatre, and even that succeeded. soon he was recognised as the lessee of more than one, and still he prospered. villebecque began to dabble in opera-houses. he enthroned himself at paris; his envoys were heard of at milan and naples, at berlin and st. petersburg. his controversies with the conservatoire at paris ranked among state papers. villebecque rolled in chariots and drove cabriolets; villebecque gave refined suppers to great nobles, who were honoured by the invitation; villebecque wore a red ribbon in the button-hole of his frock, and more than one cross in his gala dress.
all this time the daughter of stella increased in years and stature, and we must add in goodness: a mild, soft-hearted girl, as yet with no decided character, but one who loved calmness and seemed little fitted for the circle in which she found herself. in that circle, however, she ever experienced kindness and consideration. no enterprise however hazardous, no management however complicated, no schemes however vast, ever for a moment induced villebecque to forget ‘la petite.’ if only for one breathless instant, hardly a day elapsed but he saw her; she was his companion in all his rapid movements, and he studied every comfort and convenience that could relieve her delicate frame in some degree from the inconvenience and exhaustion of travel. he was proud to surround her with luxury and refinement; to supply her with the most celebrated masters; to gratify every wish that she could express.
but all this time villebecque was dancing on a volcano. the catastrophe which inevitably occurs in the career of all great speculators, and especially theatrical ones, arrived to him. flushed with his prosperity, and confident in his constant success, nothing would satisfy him but universal empire. he had established his despotism at paris, his dynasties at naples and at milan; but the north was not to him, and he was determined to appropriate it. berlin fell before a successful campaign, though a costly one; but st. petersburg and london still remained. resolute and reckless, nothing deterred villebecque. one season all the opera-houses in europe obeyed his nod, and at the end of it he was ruined. the crash was utter, universal, overwhelming; and under ordinary circumstances a french bed and a brasier of charcoal alone remained for villebecque, who was equal to the occasion. but the thought of la petite and the remembrance of his promise to stella deterred him from the deed. he reviewed his position in a spirit becoming a practical philosopher. was he worse off than before he commenced his career? yes, because he was older; though to be sure he had his compensating reminiscences. but was he too old to do anything? at forty-five the game was not altogether up; and in a large theatre, not too much lighted, and with the artifices of a dramatic toilet, he might still be able successfully to reassume those characters of coxcombs and muscadins, in which he was once so celebrated. luxury had perhaps a little too much enlarged his waist, but diet and rehearsals would set all right.
villebecque in their adversity broke to la petite, that the time had unfortunately arrived when it would be wise for her to consider the most effectual means for turning her talents and accomplishments to account. he himself suggested the stage, to which otherwise there were doubtless objections, because her occupation in any other pursuit would necessarily separate them; but he impartially placed before her the relative advantages and disadvantages of every course which seemed to lie open to them, and left the preferable one to her own decision. la petite, who had wept very much over villebecque’s misfortunes, and often assured him that she cared for them only for his sake, decided for the stage, solely because it would secure their not being parted; and yet, as she often assured him, she feared she had no predisposition for the career.
villebecque had now not only to fill his own parts at the theatre at which he had obtained an engagement, but he had also to be the instructor of his ward. it was a life of toil; an addition of labour and effort that need scarcely have been made to the exciting exertion of performance, and the dull exercise of rehearsal; but he bore it all without a murmur; with a self-command and a gentle perseverance which the finest temper in the world could hardly account for; certainly not when we remember that its possessor, who had to make all these exertions and endure all this wearisome toil, had just experienced the most shattering vicissitudes of fortune, and been hurled from the possession of absolute power and illimitable self-gratification.
lord eskdale, who was always doing kind things to actors and actresses, had a great regard for villebecque, with whom he had often supped. he had often been kind, too, to la petite. lord eskdale had a plan for putting villebecque, as he termed it, ‘on his legs again.’ it was to establish him with a french company in london at some pretty theatre; lord eskdale to take a private box and to make all his friends do the same. villebecque, who was as sanguine as he was good-tempered, was ravished by this friendly scheme. he immediately believed that he should recover his great fortunes as rapidly as he had lost them. he foresaw in la petite a genius as distinguished as that of her mother, although as yet not developed, and he was boundless in his expressions of gratitude to his patron. and indeed of all friends, a friend in need is the most delightful. lord eskdale had the talent of being a friend in need. perhaps it was because he knew so many worthless persons. but it often happens that worthless persons are merely people who are worth nothing.
lord monmouth having written to mr. rigby of his intention to reside for some months at coningsby, and having mentioned that he wished a troop of french comedians to be engaged for the summer, mr. rigby had immediately consulted lord eskdale on the subject, as the best current authority. thinking this a good opportunity of giving a turn to poor villebecque, and that it might serve as a capital introduction to their scheme of the london company, lord eskdale obtained for him the engagement.
villebecque and his little troop had now been a month at coningsby, and had hitherto performed three times a-week. lord monmouth was content; his guests much gratified; the company, on the whole, much approved of. it was, indeed, considering its limited numbers, a capital company. there was a young lady who played the old woman’s parts, nothing could be more garrulous and venerable; and a lady of maturer years who performed the heroines, gay and graceful as may. villebecque himself was a celebrity in characters of airy insolence and careless frolic. their old man, indeed, was rather hard, but handy; could take anything either in the high serious, or the low droll. their sentimental lover was rather too much bewigged, and spoke too much to the audience, a fault rare with the french; but this hero had a vague idea that he was ultimately destined to run off with a princess.
in this wise, affairs had gone on for a month; very well, but not too well. the enterprising genius of villebecque, once more a manager, prompted him to action. he felt an itching desire to announce a novelty. he fancied lord monmouth had yawned once or twice when the heroine came on. villebecque wanted to make a coup. it was clear that la petite must sooner or later begin. could she find a more favourable audience, or a more fitting occasion, than were now offered? true it was she had a great repugnance to come out; but it certainly seemed more to her advantage that she should make her first appearance at a private theatre than at a public one; supported by all the encouraging patronage of coningsby castle, than subjected to all the cynical criticism of the stalls of st. james’.
these views and various considerations were urged and represented by villebecque to la petite, with all the practised powers of plausibility of which so much experience as a manager had made him master. la petite looked infinitely distressed, but yielded, as she ever did. and the night of coningsby’s arrival at the castle was to witness in its private theatre the first appearance of mademoiselle flora.
