goodness! No, no; I will not, I do not wish it otherwise. Don't think of me; it is wise so, best so! You will suffer no more, will labor no more; you will be happy! I am content! I yield you up, my wife, my heart's love, as I did her! I bless the Lord for the strength he gives me to yield up both, my life's sole treasures, to his will!"

Susan could not reply. Again a convulsive spasm distorted her features. The struggle was short, but violent. When it ceased, her face was calm as that of the child, which appeared to be slumbering on its own little bed, her limbs as composed, her frame as pulseless. Mother and child were reünited!

For thee, poor hunchbacked prompter, with thy great, upright soul, not bowed to earth, but lifted heavenward by thy mighty sorrows, go on thy way unmurmuring! Toil! suffer! struggle! plod through thy thankless duties day by day, night by night! Let the bigot revile thy calling, the self-righteous "pass by on the other side," the ignorant stigmatize thee, what matters it? Thou hast taken up thy cross, and borne it manfully! Thine was the true heroism of self-renunciation ! Thine the heaven-descended love, that preferred the joy of those beloved to thine own, that willingly accepted misery as the purchase of their felicity! Thine will be the crown of glory, worn in eternal youth, when that deforming hump shall be shaken off with thy "mortal coil" The Lord hath taken all from thee but to pay thee back a thousand-fold.

"God bless all our gains,' say we;

But God bless all our losses'

Better suits with our degree!

A Medical Decision. An Aged Pair.- Singular Fact in Dramatic History. ·Mr. and Mrs. Ruthven. —The Stage Villain and First Old Woman of the Theatre. - Elma.. Filial Devotion. The Unknown Tragedian. — Correspondence. Mysterious Eccentricities. Attachment. The Arrival.

Rehearsal of the Valedictory. - Mortimer's Powers of Captivation. Interview with Elma. Painful Position of the Young Girl. Farewell Benefit of the Aged Actress. Pe culiarities of a Dublin Audience. Damon and Pythias. Acting of the Great Tragedian. Exotics and Violets. A Suspicion.

Elma's Scenic Talents.

The Venerable Act

ress as Mrs. Malaprop. Incidents. An Expiring Flame. -The Unspoken Adieu. — Touching Close of a Long Career. The Curtain and Pall.

"WILL you give me your candid opinion?" "It's little short of suicide--you have it." 'But," returned the aged man who had demanded that rarest of commodities, a candid opinion, and

who, having received it, was ready, after the fashion of the world, to question its truth, "but you do not know how immovably her mind is fixed on this farewell. You are not an actor-you can have no adequate conception of the reluctance with which we lay down our dramatic mantle, even when our shoulders are too feeble to carry it longer; how fiercely we wrestle against the infirmities of age, which admonish us that our hour of scenic triumph is nearly expended. You sneer; that's natural, for none but an actor can comprehend what the stage is to those whose hairs, as my wife's and mine, have grown gray in the blaze of the foot-lights. She made her débût when she was so young that she cannot even remember the occasion; and now she is seventy, just seven years my junior. How, then, am I to forbid this leave-taking of a public in whose presence her life has ebbed away, upon whose favor she has existed?"

"the

"If science may be trusted, her disease must end fatally," coolly replied phlegmatic Dr. Duff; exertion of a last effort on the stage will shorten her days. But, on the other hand, the agitation consequent upon thwarting her wishes may produce the same result. I leave you to choose between the evils."

Then, my choice is made," said Mr. Ruthven. "She shall appear. This farewell to her is the rendering up an account of her public stewardship, before she resigns her office forever. If it be true that I must lose her, though I cannot think it, let me not be haunted by the recollection that I denied her last wishes.'