Miss Adams

“ And whatever the lack of proportion between this adulation and the intrinsic artistic worth of her achievements, it cannot be said that Miss Adams’ popularity has been unfairly won. She has let her acting—whatever its limitations—and her variously expressed ambitions speak for themselves, without Bernhardtian advertising. The public knows her not at all except325 as it sees her across the footlights. She is one of the dignified women of the theatre. ”

“ Boston, Dec. 25, 1822.
The hope of this lady was accomplished. A few years before Miss Adams’s death, through the influence of a few friends, a fine likeness of her was taken by Mr Harding, and was afterwards presented by them to the Athenæum.
We hope it may not be deemed improper to mention one other friend, whose life was [Pg 99] a series of benevolent and disinterested exertions. Immediately previous to Miss Adams’s illness, she spoke of this friend with her accustomed interest; and with an anticipation that they should be fellow-travellers to the land of spirits. ”

“ After passing many years in England, Scotland and France, she returned [Pg 97] to this country, with a mind fraught with practical knowledge, a heart full of benevolence, and blest with that happy talent of conversation, that draws forth from the recipient as much as it communicates. In this lady’s society Miss Adams took the greatest delight. During their long and pleasant intercourse of many years, an artist waited on Miss Adams, and requested her to sit for a miniature picture of herself: saying that he was commissioned to solicit the favor by a friend. ”

“ There have been many instances recorded, of talent which has been suffered to languish in obscurity and want. Against these, the present instance [Pg 89] ought not to pass unnoticed. The individual kindness that Miss Adams received was invariable. She had outlived almost all her contemporaries. But new generations had sprung up under the enlightened influences of education, who respected her intellect and learning, and who loved her for her goodness. After her removal to Boston, she was therefore seldom long in solitude. ”

“ She is fragile and a woman, not a robust man; but her Chanticler took on, through her intelligence and sincerity, a share of the impressiveness that the part needed, though one felt that Miss Adams could have been spending her ability to better advantage. ”

“ She stood, with her hands joined in front of her, holding the bag, and looked down at me.
'You've been very ill, sir,' she said, and gave her head a shake.
'I assure you, madam, that you are mistaken. I have just woken up.—"Abou ben Adhem, may his tribe increase," and so on.'
'You have been insensible for on two days,' she said.
I stared at her round shadowed eyes. She nodded her head, and, I saw, smiled at me.
'—Insensible?... Why I have never fainted in my life.' I saw an open letter on the table-cloth in that dusky light. ”

“ She was the best beloved of American actresses, the idol of the American child. She was without doubt the best box-office attraction in the country. Yet she had made her way to this eminence by an industry and a concentration that were well-nigh incredible.
People began to say, "What marvelous things Charles Frohman has done for Miss Adams."
As a matter of fact, the career of Miss Adams emphasizes what a very great author once said, which, summed up, was that neither nature nor man did anything for any human being that he could not do for himself. ”

“ In the Bauble Shop, however, she had had an opportunity for her simplicity and pathos, while in That Imprudent Young Couple she rose superior to the play,334 and prompted this criticism: “That Miss Adams was able to interest her audience at all last night was due entirely to the charm of her own personality. Her work is still exceptional in its daintiness and its simplicity.... She has found the short cut from laughter into tears. It is good to see that the remarkable success that has come to this young actress has not turned her head.” ”

“ Praise from one of your skill and standing is more worth having than anything else I can think of."
Her words carried fresh doubt and despair to Adams's heart. "It can't be possible," he thought, "that such a woman would care, could care, for me and my love. And yet, I must know, I must know before this day ends."
They returned to their car and found it deserted. Adams waited while Elizabeth went to the dressing-room to remove the stains of her afternoon's work. ”

“ When Adams saw her in the autumn, he discovered the change almost with the first touch of her hand. Not only the outward form, but the indwelling intellect was alive again, and all that reminded him of her past anguish were a deeper earnestness in her smile and a faint powdering of silver on the dark wing-like waves of her hair. That veiled joy which is the expression of the soul that has found peace shone in her face with a radiance which if less bright was to him more beautiful than the sparkling energy she had lost. ”

“ When she was about seventeen her father failed in business, and Miss Adams was obliged to exert herself for her own maintenance. This she did at first by making lace, a very profitable employment during the revolutionary war, as very little lace was then imported. But after the termination of the conflict she was obliged to resort to some other means of support; and having acquired from the students who had boarded with her father, a competent knowledge of Latin and Greek, she undertook to prepare young men for college ”

“ Phillida shook her head carefully, so as not to disarrange the Greek fillet she was wearing.
"It's been too hot lately to tear round and play tennis. I think, too, that what Miss Adams says is quite right. English girls are lacking in grace and dignity. Just look at the way Ida and Joyce are flopping about now. An artist would have fits to see them!" ”

“ But it is certain, that no culture, or discipline, could have formed her manners to the standard of easy and fashionable [Pg 49] life. She sometimes observed, ‘I know I am very awkward; I never could learn to make a curtsey.’ But it must not be supposed that there was in her any want of gentleness, or propriety. Her disinterested and affectionate disposition made her, in reality, all that the most calculating would desire to appear.
The simplicity, and often the abstractedness of Miss Adams’ manner, led many to suppose that her talents were confined to the subjects on which she wrote. ”

“ She was silently gazing before her. 'Rosy,' I said, 'Rosebud,' rubbing my cheek softly against hers, 'I would do anything, if it were only true, to make you happy. I would marry you tomorrow if it were not for those ... those words that would be so false in my mouth, that I could not utter them. I could not do that. But there are other ways of marrying people, now I think of it. I will find out about them. Then, you see, you would be my wife: I mean, as far as having my name; so that no one could think or say anything against you.' (She was shaking her head.) ”

“ Miss Adams, with all her humility, and her retiring modesty, was the casuist of her youthful friends. A number of her papers that remain, prove how often she was resorted to by her companions in cases of opinion; and the publication of a few of these, it is believed, cannot be wholly uninteresting to those who knew her in later life.
One of her young friends put to her this [Pg 62] interrogative. Ought mankind to be respected for their personal worth alone, abstracted from all accidental causes? ”

“ I feared so this morning.' What sorrow was in me for her was given in the words here.
'And where have you been all this while?' she said, looking up,—'if I may ask?'
I bowed my head.
'I left Glastonbury last February. I was in London for a little, and then in Paris for a little, and then in London again till now.'
'Perhaps,' he said, 'Mr. Leicester would go with you? You must have a great deal to say to one another after so long and so silent a separation?' I saw, or thought I saw, that she did not desire that I should go with her. Half-hesitation of hers was not enough to entice me. ”

“ They have not robbed you?"
She shakes her head, returns a look of sweet innocence, and mutters: "It was the moment of life or death. Thank heaven-merciful heaven, I am yet guiltless. They have not robbed me of my virtue-no, no, no. I am faint, I am weak-set me down-set me down. The dawn of my morning has brightened."
And she seems swooning in his arms. Gently he bears her to the cot, lays her upon it, and with the solicitude of one whose heart she has touched with a recital of her troubles, smooths her pillow and watches over her until her emotions come subdued. ”

“ “I've been leading you without your knowing it. Of course that's because you're new to the town, and you give yourself up to the guidance of an old citizen.”
“I'm not so sure, Miss Adams. It might mean that I don't care where I follow so long as I follow you.” ”

“ Her heart was touched, her spirits gained strength, her soul seemed in a loftier and purer atmosphere.
"Poor, but virtuous-virtue ennobles the poor. Once gone, the world never gives it back!" she muses, and is awakened from her reverie by a sweet, sympathizing voice, whispering in her ear. "Woman! you are in trouble,—linger no longer here, or you will fall into the hands of your enemies." She looks up, and there stands at her side a young female, whose beauty the angels might envy. The figure came upon her so suddenly that she hesitates for a reply to the admonition. ”

“ I tell you, I won’t be coddled.”
“Better take a bit of care than lie abed,” argued Jim sensibly. “And Missy’s feared for you, sir.”
“Girls always fuss,” muttered the boy, growing cross. He pushed aside, with unmannerly roughness, young East’s detaining hand, and was making for the fireside when Frances intercepted him.
“Oh, Austin, how can you be so rude?” whispered the girl reproachfully. “Do go with this good-natured lad,” she pleaded. “You know how dreadful it is when you get a bad throat.”
“As though I’d loaf about his dirty old kitchen and be rolled up in smithy blankets!” ”

“ The continuation of her life is by a lady, one of [Pg v] those friends whose kindness she has acknowledged with warm gratitude towards the conclusion of her own narrative. It could not have been confided to better hands. The discrimination and delicacy with which the retiring virtues, and nicer shades of her character are delineated and produced, will explain to those who did not know her, what was the charm that drew genius and wealth, and youth and beauty, to minister with so much interest to the infirmities of a poor old woman.
Miss Adams was indeed deserving of such interest. ”

“ Her countenance wears an expression of gentleness, sweet and touching. Her silky black hair rolls in wavy folds down her voluptuous shoulders, a fresh carnatic flush suffuses her cheeks, her great black eyes, so beautifully arched with heavy lashes, flash incessantly, and to her bewitching charms is added a pensive smile that now lights up her features, then subsides into melancholy.
"What think you of my statuary?" inquired the old hostess, "and my antiques? Have I not taste enough for a princess?" How soft the carpet, how rich its colors! ”

“ As I was folding on my necktie I noticed how dirty my collar was, and then my shirt, and more particularly the cuffs. I put on a clean,—the last,—collar in the bag. And that set me off thinking for a moment about my clothes. 'Well, well!' I said, 'I shall have to tell the man the truth I suppose: and why not?' For I did not doubt but that he would have me.
Rosy was of course off to her work these three hours. This, and what she would think about the secretaryship, came to me as I passed her door and went down the dark stuffy old wooden staircase. What would the Rosebud think? ”

“ And as I looked at her seated there before and below me, I smiled.
'It is strange,' said I, sinking with the smile into a chair by her, between her and Rayne, but nearer to her, 'It is strange how much men and women have in common.—I mean,' I said, leaning on the elbow next her, and looking at her, 'how much we have in common with one another.'
'Yes?' she said, elevating her brows a little, being a little surprised, I supposed, and wondering what sort of strange masculinity she had come across.
'I mean,' I said, with narrowing eyes, 'that—perhaps no one can live a life of his own. ”

“ Do not tell him this, but tell him the impression he has made on Adams" (Adams was the manager at Ingleby) "is not a satisfactory one; and Adams is a man whose opinions I hold very high. Tell him he is having the chance of his life; warn him not to abuse it."
He was still trampling the poor woman's heart beneath the prancings of his own eloquence, when the ringing of the street-door bell created a diversion.
Downstairs went Miss Bessie, her fair hair ruffled, her cheek flushed from its pressure upon her pillow, to take in, as she imagined, in the absence of Emily, the afternoon's milk. ”

“ Lee sat long, with her eyes fixed on the fire, reflecting upon what he had said. Her mind was bewildered by the new suggestions which Ratcliffe had thrown out. What woman of thirty, with aspirations for the infinite, could resist an attack like this? What woman with a soul could see before her the most powerful public man of her time, appealing—with a face furrowed by anxieties, and a voice vibrating with only half-suppressed affection—to her for counsel and sympathy, without yielding some response? ”