But it was her acting as Juliet, especially when in a sudden burst of despair, she exclaimed, "My Romeo is banished," that carried away the audience as if by electricity.
An eye-witness said, "she gives herself up entirely to the impression of circumstances, borne along by the tide of passion. Every nerve is strained, her frame is convulsed, her breath suspended, her forehead knit together. Fate encloses her round and seizes on his struggling victim. She seems formed for scenes of terror and agony."
The disdainful Miss Walstein was compelled to recognise that she had a formidable competitor in public favour to encounter. Soon afterwards, the two actresses had to appear together in a version of Scott's "Lady of the Lake," Miss Walstein being Blanche, and Miss O'Neill the fair Ellen. The two rivals now became known as "the Eagle and the Dove."
Of Eliza O'Neill's personal appearance it has been said "that her beauty seems to have been of the classical type, her features having a Grecian outline, her voice was deep, clear and mellow, her figure was middle-sized and she had a slight stoop in the shoulders which does not seem to have detracted from her grace and dignity." It was during some private theatricals at Kilkenny that she met her future husband, then Mr. William Wrixon Becher. He was one of the actors, and an attach-
