s."

Not all the hustling, mowing, and gibbering of the fiends would under
ordinary circumstances have kept Adeliza from her lover's side: but what is
all hell to jealousy?

In even less time than he had promised Belial returned, accompanied by
Madam Lucifer. This lady's black robe, dripping with blood, contrasted
agreeably with her complexion of sulphurous yellow; the absence of hair was
compensated by the exceptional length of her nails; she was a thousand
million years old, and, but for her remarkable muscular vigour, looked
every one of them. The rage into which Belial's communication had thrown
her was something indescribable; but, as her eye fell on the handsome
youth, a different order of thoughts seemed to take possession of her mind.

"Let the monster go!" she exclaimed; "who cares? Come, my love, ascend the
throne with me, and share the empire and the treasures of thy fond
Luciferetta."

"If you don't, back you go," interjected Belial.

What might have been the young man's decision if Madam Lucifer had borne
more resemblance to Madam Vulcan, it would be wholly impertinent to
inquire, for the question never arose.

"Take me away!" he screamed, "take me away, anywhere I anywhere out of her
reach! Oh, Adeliza!"

With a bound Adeliza stood by his side. She was darting a triumphant glance
at the discomfited Queen of Hell, when suddenly her expression changed, and
she screamed loudly. Two adorers stood before her, alike in every lineament
and every detail of costume, utterly indistinguishable, even by the eye of
Love.

Lucifer, in fact, hastening to throw himself at Adeliza's feet and pray her
to defer his bliss no longer, had been thunderstruck by the tidings of her
elopement with Belial. Fearing to lose his wife and his dominions along
with his sweetheart, he had sped to the nether regions with such expedition
that he had had no time to change his costume. Hence the equivocation which
confounded Adeliza, but at the same time preserved her from being torn to
pieces by the no less mystified Madam Lucifer.

Perceiving the state of the case, Lucifer with true gentlemanly feeling
resumed his proper semblance, and Madam Lucifer's talons were immediately
inserted into his whiskers.

"My dear! my love!" he gasped, as audibly as she would let him, "is this
the way it welcomes its own Lucy-pucy?"

"Who is that person?" demanded Madam Lucifer.

"I don't know her," screamed the wretched Lucifer. "I never saw her