“Academic silks, in hue
   The lilac, with a silken hood to each,
   And zoned with gold.”

Nothing could have been more picturesque, and there was a buzz of hearty applause from the many spectators who crowded the galleries and front seats of the little theater when the curtain rose on the well-known garden scene, where the Prince, Florian and Cyril saw the maidens of that first college for women—­ that poet’s vision, so amply fulfilled in the happy life at St. Benet’s.

         &nb
sp;                                             There
  One walk’d, reciting by herself, and one
  In this hand held a volume as to read,
  And smoothed a petted peacock down with that: 
  Some to a low song oar’d a shallop by,
  Or under arches of the marble bridge
  Hung, shadow’d from the heat:  some hid and sought
  In the orange thickets:  others tost a ball
  Above the fountain jets, and back again
  With laughter:  others lay about the lawns,
  Of the older sort, and murmur’d that their May
  Was passing:  what was learning unto them? 
  They wish’d to marry:  they could rule a house;
  Men hated learned women. . . .”

The girls walked slowly about among the orange groves and by the fountain jets.  In the distance the chapel bells tolled faint and sweet.  More maidens appeared, and Tennyson’s lovely lines were again represented with such skill, the effect of multitude was so skilfully managed that the

  “Six hundred maidens, clad in purest white,”

appeared really to fill the gardens,

  “While the great organ almost burst his pipes,
   Groaning for power, and rolling thro’ the court
   A long melodious thunder to the sound
   Of solemn psalms, and silver litanies.”

The curtain fell, to rise in a few moments amid a burst of applause.  The Princess herself now appeared for the first time on the little stage.  Nothing could have been more admirable than the grouping of this tableau.  All the pride of mien, of race, of indomitable purpose was visible on the face of the young girl who acted the part of the Princess Ida.

                                                 “She stood
  Among her maidens, higher by the head,
  Her back against a pillar.”

It was impossible, of course, to represent the tame leopards, but the maidens who gathered round the Princess prevented this want being apparent, and Maggie Oliphant’s attitude and the expression which filled her bright eyes left nothing to be desired.

“Perfect!” exclaimed the spectators:  the interest of every one present was more than aroused; each individual in the little theater felt, though no one could exactly tell why, that Maggie was not merely acting her part, she was living it.

Suddenly she raised her head and looked steadily at the visitors in the gallery:  a wave of rosy red swept over the whitness of her face.  It was evident that she had encountered a glance which disturbed her composure.