Madame ALBERT has this week shown that pathos is her
forte : and it is no more than justice to her power of expressing strong emotion, to assign her precedence in this respect over every actress that has yet appeared at the St. James's Theatre. On Monday she played the heroine of a domestic drama of serious interest, called Un Secret. This lady is the wife of a banker, who accuses her of a penchant for his cashier : with conscious innocence, she repels the accusation in- dignantly ; but, in order to clear herself, she is obliged to reveal to her husband her knowledge of his guilty share in a transaction that had reduced the father of his cashier to beggary and suicide. The revela- tion of this " secret " humbles the banker; accounts for the interest that his wife had taken in the clerk's welfare ; and reconciliation follows. Madame ALBERT painted the sufferings of the suspected wife—her effort to conceal the knowledge of her husband's delinquency, and the struggle between consideration for his feelings and regard for her own character—with consummate art : her aspect and demeanour, as well as the equivocal situations in which she is placed, tended to strengthen the appearances against her, and, by contrast, increased the force of her denial and retaliation. The tone of command and look of scorn with which she turns upon her husband, when, stung beyond endurance by his bitter reproaches, she throws off the defensive and becomes the accuser, exclaiming, "it genoux—ii genoux I" was of electrical power ; yet unforced, unexaggerated—the simple effort of natural energy appro- priate to the circumstances. Never have domestic sorrows found mote plaintive utterance than with Madame ALBERT : her tears are genuine, and the melting mood infects the audience.
M. LEMADRE personated the Banker admirably : and M. Rams be- came the Cashier well, and acted discreetly throughout. M. EARQUI, as a litterateur on the look-out for plots and incidents, and blind to the flirtations of his wife, was amusing without vulgarity or buffoonery.
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