desperate at the thought, that in a few minutes she might be too late to prevent the meeting between her husband and the object of his guilty love, she hurriedly alighted; and, giving the servant orders to await her return as near the spot as possible, tremblingly entered the theatre.

The lights, the music, the tumultuous rush of persons, and, above all, the noise, struck upon her terrified senses, and made her feel scarcely capable of preventing herself from sinking on the earth. Various masks accosted her with the usual hacknied addresses; and, amused by her evident alarm, seemed peculiarly bent on persecuting her with their flippant attentions.

The strangeness of her position, alone in a crowd for the first time in her life, the motley throng of hideous masks, and the disguised and squeaking tones of those who wore them,

appalled her; and she shrank in painful alarm from each person who addressed her, though, in escaping from one tormentor, she only found herself assailed by another. But, in spite of her fears, one passion, painful and mighty in its influence, still supported and gave her resolution to proceed. This passion was jealousy, which steeled her nerves, and deadened all other feelings in her troubled breast.

She advanced towards the appointed spot;

but, though eleven o'clock had struck, in sounds that vibrated like a death-knell in her ear, no person like the one described in her letter was visible. She repeatedly made the concerted signal with her bouquet, but in vain; she was only addressed by a crowd of masks, all utterly dissimilar in appearance to the one she sought with so much fearful interest. What if he had already joined her detested rival? there was agony and madness in the thought!

66

Why are you alone, beau masque?"

"Where is your unpunctual cavalier?"

"Take my arm, and do not wait for him."

Such were the questions and phrases with which she was persecuted by the surrounding revellers; who, marking the impatience of her gestures as she turned from them, concluded that she was in search of one who had disappointed her.

She had passed nearly an hour in this state of agonising suspense, - afraid to leave the appointed spot, lest she should miss the object of her search; when, to her inexpressible relief, she saw a mask approaching, whose domino exactly resembled the one described in the letter, and whose air strongly reminded her of that of her husband.

She raised her bouquet, and the mask instantly advanced and offered her his arm. So great was her emotion, that she could

scarcely move; when her companion, feeling her arm trembling within his, to a degree that indicated intense agitation, in a disguised tone expressed his sympathy, and proposed to conduct her to a box, where she might repose, until she should have regained her self-possession.

"How unlike the tenderness of his manner to me in past happy days!" thought Alicia. "No! he cannot love the person for whom he mistakes me, or he could not be so calmly indifferent."

A ray of hope shot through her soul at this thought; and she entered the box, far less wretched than when her companion had first accosted her.

I must now return to M. St. Armand, who passed his period of probation in a state of the most violent excitement. At a quarter to twelve he hurried to the bal masqué; and

proceeded direct to the spot designated in the letter. There he saw a female in a pink domino, whose stature nearly resembled that of his wife, who gave the signal he expected. He joined her instantly; and, offering his arm, addressed to her some of the usual phrases on such occasions; to which, however, she declined all reply, except by an affirmative movement of the head. He conducted her to a box, and requested her to unmask; but he could neither induce her to comply with this entreaty, nor to answer his questions. At length, maddened by what he deemed her crafty attempt to avoid detection, he tore the mask from her face, and beheld

an utter stranger.

He was rushing from her presence, frenzied by shame and disappointment, when the voice of his wife, in the adjoining box, struck on his ear. With one effort and bound, he burst into it, and discovered M. de Melfort, and Alicia in a paroxysm of tears.