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tion, that never was a person more disposed to be duped. Resolving, therefore, to be convinced that your profession of the interest which my tale deserves, and has excited, &c., is all pre-eminently sincere, I will now proceed to detail to you the catastrophe.

My last letter terminated with my announcement of Jules' formation of a resolution, which, with truly literary tact, I piquantly forbore to declare. This resolution, was to master his present temptation to an imperfect retribution; but, by postponing it, to render it more thorough and complete.

In this determination, he entered the warehouse as soon as his wife had left it; and, having provided himself with a mask and domino, such as were described in the anonymous letter, he retired to a restaurant in the vicinity of the Opera House; there, to await, in

trembling impatience, the moment which was to convict his wife of indelible guilt, and blight eternally his own happiness.

Every softer feeling was banished from his breast; every recollection of past tenderness only added to his rage, by compelling him to contrast his present convictions of her falsity and guilt, with his former notions of her purity and innocence. How fondly, how madly had he idolised her! and how many instances of her devoted attachment, which, only a few hours before, had they recurred to him, would have been meditated on, and cherished with transport and pride, were now only regarded by him as proofs of her skilful artifice and consummate treachery.

The envious and rantorous women who planned the savage plot which I have been detailing, scarcely hoped that it could prove successful. They feared that the timidity of Madame

St. Armand's nature would preclude her, at least, from going to the bal masqué, though they expected that her husband might be tempted to adopt their mischievous advice. In order, therefore, that he, at all events, might be imposed upon, they dressed the femme de chambre of one of the clique in a pink domino, and instructed her to place herself near the orchestra at the appointed hour, and give the concerted signal.

They also wrote an anonymous letter to M. de Melfort, stating that a lady, who had an important communication to make to him, desired to meet him, at eleven o'olock, at the bal masqué; concluding by repeating the instructions already detailed in the letter to Madame St. Armand.

The hours that intervened between the purchase of the domino and the moment for assuming their disguise, seemed interminable

to the unhappy husband and wife. A hundred times was Alicia about to abandon her intention, as the dread and indecorum of exposing herself, alone, in so vast and profligate an assembly, arose to her imagination. But, then, the idea that her absence would leave her hated rival undisputed possession of her husband, again maddened her, and determined her to execute her plan, in defiance of all the feminine misgivings which still made her shrink from the anticipation of the scene which she felt must

occur.

Soon her embarrassment was excited by the thought, that her servants must be acquainted with her visit to so disreputable a

place and alone, too; she, who never went any where without her husband.

"But what avail now," thought the wretched Alicia, "my fears of the condemnation of my own menials? What signifies to

me what the whole world may think, in comparison with the necessity of preventing Jules from meeting that wicked woman!"

The astonishment depicted on the countenances of her domestics, when, at half-past ten o'clock, she entered her carriage, disguised in a mask and domino, made the blush of shame mount to her very forehead, and almost induced her to abandon her resolution. But now that the servants had seen her in her disguise, and had formed their surmises and conclusions, any pusillanimous retrogradation would be even worse than fruitless.

Away,

therefore, with all irresolution; and she determined to proceed in her perilous enterprise.

On arriving at the Opera House, and discovering the throng around the entrance, she became so much alarmed, that she shrank back in the carriage; and again, for a moment, meditated a return to her home. But, growing

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