TO ENDURE THE BURDEN
officiously ambitious relatives had buckled on her back. It ended as all other matches wherein affection is made to pay tribute to other considerations end, in separation, infatuation with another, death, disgrace, exile. Her home is said to have been unhappy, a cheerless place, unwarmed by an atmosphere of love, whence an impulsive woman unconsciously went out to one who appreciated and was a friend to her. Of course she was obliged to encounter opposition, ostracism, social annihilation with the classes whereof she was at once the peer and superior. But little she cared, and in the salons of Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and St. Petersburgh, she found the salad of variety that was denied her at home up to 1867. She was a regnant queen at Washington, Cape May, Saratoga—in short, at every point she honored with her presence. She was the objective point of attraction to the grave and gay, to the solemn and severe. But while she outwardly accepted, and with pleasure, the homage men deemed themselves privileged to bestow, those familiar with the skeleton in the closet of Madeline R.'s heart, speak of her as one who suffered in silence, until it was a change or a mad-house, and she sought the change.
Those who were visitors to, or residents of New York city during 1867 will remember the advent of Walter Montgomery, the English actor. He came almost unheralded, but in the brief period of his sojourn
ACHIEVED A DRAMATIC TRIUMPH
unparalleled in the history of the American stage. In form and appearance he was a magnificent creation. A trifle larger than Edwin Booth, with a physique modelled by the master-hand of nature, a physiognomy of classic outlines, and a genius for his art, that is said to have rivalled that displayed by the most noted histrions of the English stage. In all respects he is said to have been as ravishingly perfect as the forms Angelo hewed from blocks of marble, or Guido traced on canvas, which to-day haunt the memory as a vanished gleam of sunlight, that kissed life's rippling river—and then was gone. In addition to the qualities mentioned there was entire absence of the shilly-shallying practices many actors delight to indulge, in their efforts to secure applause or attract the admiration of susceptible females. He was esteemed, an accomplished artist and true man. He opened at Niblo's in "Ruy Blas," making his headquarters at the Metropolitan, and frequenting a theatrical club-house on Houston street, known as the "House of Lords." Socially, he was never received by the Knickerbockers of the Empire city, his relations with men of letters and the professions were extremely cordial. How Mrs. R. and himself became acquainted is not clearly defined. But that acquaintance on her part was resolved into an infatuation irresistible and indescribable, and she succeeded in inspiring him with
A RECIPROCITY OF FEELING
that was not to be misunderstood. Wherever he went professionally, she was constantly included in the list of his admirers. Upon the Eastern circuit, throughout the West, from Pittsburg to the Pacific slope, the susceptible Madeline was first and foremost among those who worshipped at the shrine of this gifted exponent of Melpomene.
Upon his return to New York from San Francisco, he concluded his engagements and sailed for Liverpool by the Cunard steamship Scotia. By this time the attentions bestowed upon Montgomery by Mrs. R. had become more than a topic of comment with observers beyond the pale of the social set of which she had been a prime factor. It was reported that they were engaged to be married, and that his return to England was for the purpose of completing arrangements in that behalf. At all events she accompanied him as a fellow-passenger on the Scotia but reached England alone, for during the voyage Montgomery suicided by cutting his throat. No cause was ever assigned for the deed, but the fact that he had a wife, living in London impressed his friends with the belief that remorse at the lengths to which he had permitted his
FLIRTATION WITH MRS. R.
to proceed, prompted the deed. He was buried in Kensal Green, within sight of St. Paul's, and after the completion of the ceremonies at the grave his whilom admirer disappeared, to come to the surface at Paris as the promised wife of Sir St. George Gore, a landed proprietor of Tasmania, off the coast of Australia, and a man of wealth and prominence in the British possessions of the South Pacific. But it is not believed this alliance was perfected by a priestly benediction. Since then she has been a wanderer. Possessed of wealth, beauty, accomplishments, and much that would command esteem, she seeks to find in the excitement of travel a solace for her wasted life, and in intercourse with strangers forgetfulness of her woes. She is said to have come hither from San Francisco via Cheyenne, and that during her stay here she was known as Mrs. F.