he retired, the door closed, and I was left in the
dark to determine whether I had not suddenly
awakened from a tantalising dream. In spite of
my very wakeful sensations, I believe I should
have endeavoured to convince myself that I had
been sleeping, but that I perceived light shining
under my door, and through the keyhole, from
the passage. I got up, lit my lamp, and dressed
myself as hastily as I was able.

I opened my door, and the passage down
which a short time before I had almost groped
my way, with my lamp blinking in the dense
foggy darkness, was now illuminated with a
light as bright as gas. I walked along it
quickly, looking right and left to see whence
the glare proceeded. Arriving at the hall, I
found it also blazing with light, and filled with
perfume. Groups of choice plants, heavy with
blossoms, made it look like a garden. The mosaic
floor was strewn with costly mats. Soft colours
and gilding shone from the walls, and canvases
that had been black gave forth faces of men and
women looking brightly from their burnished
frames. Servants were running about, the dining-
room and drawing-room doors were opening and
shutting, and as I looked through each I saw
vistas of light and colour, the moving of brilliant
crowds, the waving of feathers, and glancing of
brilliant dresses and uniforms. A festive hum
reached me with a drowsy subdued sound as if
I were listening with stuffed ears. Standing
aside by an orange-tree, I gave up speculating
on what this might be, and concentrated all my
powers on observation.

Wheels were heard suddenly, and a resounding
knock banged at the door till it seemed that
the very rooks in the chimneys must be startled
screaming out of their nesfs. The door flew
open, a flaming of lanterns was seen outside,
and a dazzling lady came up the steps and swept
into the hall. When she held up her cloth of
silver train, I could see the diamonds that
twinkled on her feet. Her bosom was covered
with moss-roses, and there was a red light in her
eyes like the reflexion from a hundred glowing
fires. Her black hair went coiling about her
head, and couched among the braids lay a jewel
not unlike the head of a snake. She was flashing
and glowing with gems and flowers. Her
beauty and her brilliance made me dizzy. There
came a faintness in the air, as if her breath had
poisoned it. A whirl of storm came in with her,
and rushed up the staircase like a moan. The
plants shuddered and shed their blossoms, and
all the lights grew dim a moment, then flared up
again.

Now the drawing-room door opened, and
a gentleman came out with a young girl leaning
on his arm. He was a fine-looking, middle-aged
gentleman, with a mild countenance.

The girl was a slender creature, with golden
hair and a pale face. She was dressed in pure
white, with a large ruby like a drop of blood at
her throat. They advanced together to receive
the lady who had arrived. The gentleman
offered his arm to the stranger, and the girl who
was displaced for her fell back, and walked
behind them with a downcast air. I felt irresistibly
impelled to follow them, and passed with
them into the drawing-room. Never had I
mixed in a finer, gayer crowd. The costumes
were rich and of an old-fashioned pattern.
Dancing was going forward with spirit— minuets
and country dances. The stately gentleman was
evidently the host, and moved among the company,
introducing the magnificent lady right and
left. He led her to the head of the room presently,
and they mixed in the dance. The arrogance
of her manner and the fascination of her
beauty were wonderful.

I cannot attempt to describe the strange
manner in which I was in this company, and
yet not of it. I seemed to view all I beheld
through some fine and subtile medium. I saw
clearly, yet I felt that it was not with my
ordinary naked eyesight. I can compare it to
nothing but looking at a scene through a piece
of smoked or coloured glass. And just in the
same way (as I have said before) all sounds
seemed to reach me as if I were listening with
ears imperfectly stuffed. No one present took
any notice of me. I spoke to several, and they
made no reply— did not even turn their eyes
upon me, nor show in any way that they heard
me. I planted myself straight in the way of a
fine fellow in a general's uniform, but he,
swerving neither to right nor left by an inch,
kept on his way, as though I were a streak of
mist, and left me behind him. Every one I
touched eluded me somehow. Substantial as
they all looked, I could not contrive to lay my
hand on anything that felt like solid flesh. Two
or three times I felt a momentary relief from
the oppressive sensations which distracted me,
when I firmly believed I saw Frank's head at
some distance among the crowd, now in one
room and now in another, and again in the
conservatory, which was hung with lamps, and
filled with people walking about among the
flowers. But, whenever I approached, he had
vanished. At last I came upon him, sitting by
himself on a couch behind a curtain watching
the dancers. I laid my hand upon his shoulder.
Here was something substantial at last. He
did not look up; he seemed aware neither of
my touch nor my speech. I looked in his
staring eyes, and found that he was sound
asleep. I could not wake him.

Curiosity would not let me remain by his
side. I again mixed with the crowd, and found
the stately host still leading about the magnificent
lady. No one seemed to notice that the
golden-haired girl was sitting weeping in a
corner; no one but the beauty in the silver
train, who sometimes glanced at her
contemptuously. Whilst I watched her distress a
group came between me and her, and I
wandered into another room, where, as though I
had turned from one picture of her to look at
another, I beheld her dancing gaily in the full
glee of Sir Roger de Coverley, with a fine-
looking youth, who was more plainly dressed
than any other person in the room. Never was
a better-matched pair to look at. Down the