moreover I have so much to do that it is impossible for me
to tell you personally all the great pleasure you have given
me, because I have felt your heart. Will you believe, dear
Madame, in mine, which asks no more at this moment than to
admire you and to tell you so in any manner whatsoever.

"Always yours,
"E. Duse."[42]

It was worth having lived to get that letter!

[Illustration: _From a drawing by the Marchioness of Granby_

H. BEERBOHM TREE WHO PLAYED WITH ELLEN TERRY IN "THE AMBER HEART"]

"_Faust_"

A claptrappy play "Faust" was, no doubt, but Margaret was the part I
liked better than any other--outside Shakespeare. I played it
beautifully sometimes. The language was often very commonplace, not
nearly as poetic or dramatic as that of "Charles I.," but the
character was all right--simple, touching, sublime. The Garden Scene I
know was a _bourgeois_ affair. It was a bad, weak love-scene, but
George Alexander as Faust played it admirably. Indeed, he always acted
like an angel with me; he was so malleable, ready to do anything. He
was launched into the part at very short notice, after H. B. Conway's
failure on the first night. Poor Conway! It was Coghlan as Shylock all
over again.

[Illustration: ELEANORA DUSE WITH LENBACH'S CHILD

FROM THE PAINTING BY FRANZ VON LENBACH]

Conway was a descendant of Lord Byron, and he had a look of the
_handsomest_ portraits of the poet. With his bright hair curling
tightly all over his well-shaped head, his beautiful figure, and
charming presence, he created a sensation in the eighties almost equal
to that made by the more famous beauty, Lily Langtry. As an actor he
belonged to the Terriss type, but he was not nearly as good as
Terriss.

Henry called a rehearsal the next day--on Sunday, I think. The company
stood about in groups on the stage, while Henry walked up and down,
speechless, but humming a tune occasionally, always a portentous sign
with him. The scene set was the Brocken scene, and Conway stood at
the top of the slope, as far away from Henry as he could get! He
looked abject. His handsome face was very red, his eyes full of tears.
He was terrified at the thought of what was going to happen. As for
Henry, he was white as death, but he never let pain to himself (or
others) stand in the path of duty to his public, and his public had
shown that they wanted another Faust.