MADAME NILSSON.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3522, 21 October 1882, Page 4

MADAME NILSSON.

(London Truth )

On the stage, Nilsson soon lost the pure, passionless, but not by any means insipid or unemotional Btyle. gob theatrical, which was not an improvement. In society, no trace remained of the quiet pensive manner. An almost royal air was cultivated. In her fauteidl, slightly in advance of that of Mrs Kichardson, her mere de theatre, she sat expecting to be worshipped. She was fine-looking, and there was much in her appearance to convey tho idea of native superiority. Her eyes had the farseeing expression of a man-at-the-wheel. There was no affectation or amiability nor of finical graces. IL once happened at a select party, following a dinner given in her honor, that the Amphitryon, who was a celebrated author, begged her to sing. She required a deal of pressing, and then, turning to a poet, said : —' Well, since you are here, but for that reason only.' Her manner showed that she was accustomed to sell her songs for £20 apiece, and receive the fee beforehand. To show his gratitude, tho bard, when she sat clown, went up and kissed her. The diva reddened up, and the poet only escaped having his ears boxed by stooping quickly. His air of repentance for having taken such a liberty set her laughing, and put her in a good humor. She chatted for some time. Her theme was her own theatrical successes and prospects. One of the things she said on this occasion was. ' I emulate Jenny Lind. My ambition is to make heaps of money, invest it well, fall desperately in love with a handsome man, marry him, and in the course of time go back with him and a couple of handsome children to Sweden. I should so like to ride about with them in a nice carriage showing them to old friends.'

She earned the heaps of money, but was unlucky in her investments ; she fell in love with the handsome man, who, alas ! passed through a private mad-house to the grave, and left her a childless, and almost fortuneless widow. At the age of 39 she feels dreadfully old, inelastic, desillusionnee. The libels of French journals do not torment her, and the proofs of Royal sympathy that she has been receiving are scarcely a source of pleasure. Americans press her to make another tour in the States. When she was last there she earned 790,000 francs. People went mad about her. At a fancy fair, where, dressed as Ophelia, she sold wild flowers, a Tammany Hall millionaire- went up to her and said : ' I shall lay down 5000 dollars, just to kiss yon.' 'No,' replied Christina; ' but anybody who pleases may kiss my hand at the rate of 100 dollars a kiss.' In a few minutes her purse was stuffed with banknotes. Madame Nilsson's wedding was a triumphal one. It took place under tho auspices of Lady Augusta Stanley, and the Dean of Westminster officiated. The bridegroom was an amiable Creole. His family was rich and highly respectable, and one of his near relatives was a French Admiral. The late . . Rouzaud had never reason to complain of the gallont attentions of other man to his wife, but he was rendered unhappy by the feeling that he merely revolved around her. The position of Prince Consort to a Sovereign Lady of the Opera House is not an agreeable one. M. Rouzaud chafed under a sense of his own inferiority. W hen his wife lost a geat part of her fortune in an American speculation, he was glad of the opportunity to enhance his value in her eyes by rendering her more wealthy. Ho fancied that through the kindness of some members of the Rothschild family, who loved her beautiful voice, he might obtain a key to tho Bourse. This illusion brought with it utter ruin. Stock Exchange emotions hastened the action of creeping paralysis. The marriage, which commenced under such auspices at Westminister Abbey, proved a miserable one long before the intervention of a mad doctor was required. When Madame Nilsson discovered that her husband was a lunatic, and that his mind had been unhinged, she-forgave all the injury which he had unwillingly caused her, and acted towards him with thoughtful generosity. He was allowed a suite of rooms in the mad-house in which he was confined, and four servants. During his illness hia wife remained in absolu'o seclusion. She bore the misfortune that overwhelmed her with dignity. But in quitting Paris she shook the dust of that city from off her feet. Her sorrows had been aggravated by attacks upon her in print which last winter gave philanthropic articles of M. Jules Simon and daily instalments of " PobBouille.'