Mirth and Sorrow

• Watchlist

It is carnival day in Paris, but Bertha Corazzo, artiste at the Grand Opera House, is scarcely aware of the fact until she receives a letter. By it she learns that there is to be a matinee at the theater that afternoon and that she must attend to take the part of one of the principals who will be absent. There is no joy in the news for her, for her mother is lying at the point of death. But go she must, so donning her jacket, she leaves her mother to the care of a neighbor. The comic opera is in full swing when a hasty note is handed to Bertha in the wings of the theater. Her mother is worse, and she must hurry back if she desires to see her once more. Without stopping to think, she throws a cloak around her shoulders and hastily leaves the theater. Outside, the streets are full of people. The carnival procession is passing, and revelers in fantastic costumes are tossing handfuls of confetti at each other. Bertha, still in her fancy stage costume, is taken for a merry-maker and showers of the variegated bits of paper are flung at her by three young men who pursue her to the very door of her poor room. Here, after a second's hesitation, they decide to enter, bearing with them the burdens of confetti and flowers, with which they purpose to bombard their victim. They push the door open and then stand shame-faced and silent at the sight which meets their gaze. In a room which tells a tale of poverty and pinching, the young girl whom they have just been pursuing lies sobbing on the floor by the bedside of her mother, dead before her daughter could reach her. For a few moments they look at each other, and then, not knowing how else to offer his sympathy, one takes the flowers, and, shaking off the confetti, lays them on the bed before silently withdrawing with his companions.