urely he had a right also. It did not
please Wallmoden to have him there, but he could not well forbid his
nephew's presence when he himself was present. Will, who had some
difficulty in obtaining a seat in the parquette, unfolded the programme
carelessly, when suddenly his eye caught the name of "Marietta Volkmar,"
and knew whom he was to see this evening. He folded the programme
hastily and put it in his pocket; he regretted in this moment that he
had come to the theatre at all.

Finally the performance began. The curtain rose, and the first act,
little more than a prelude, was soon over. It was an introduction to the
spectators, of that weird, fantastic, legendary world into which they
were to enter, with Arivana, the sacred place of offering, the holy of
holies, in the foreground.

The principal character in the drama, the young priest, who in the
fanaticism of his belief puts everything earthly far from him, as
unclean, appeared, and in a few masterly, powerful lines, pronounced his
vow, by which, for him, for time and eternity, all earthly bonds were
loosed, and he was committed heart and soul to the service of his God.
The oath was taken, the holy flame blazed and waved on the sacrificial
altar, and the curtain fell.

The applause, started at once by the duke, resounded on all sides. This
work, about which so much had been said, was bound to be a success, in a
certain sense, for this one evening at least. But there was something
more than idle flattery in this applause. The spectators felt at once
that, a true poet had spoken to them; the creation had already had the
commendation of the court, but the public were carried away with it
now. They were charmed by the diction, by the characters, and by the
subject, and when the curtain rose anew, there was a look of silent
expectancy on every face.

The drama now moved forward in majestic measure upon a scenic background
as full of warmth and color as the language and characters of the piece.

The luxuriant vegetation of India, the fabulous pomp of her temples and
her palaces; the men and women with their wild loves and their still
wilder hatred; the rigid laws of their faith; all this was strange and
fantastic, but the manner in which these men and women felt and acted
was familiar to every one. They stood under the influence of a power
which is the same to-day that it was a thousand years ago; the same in
the tropics and in the colder climes of the north; the p