ished me to spoil his likeness. This alarmed, but fortunately
did not irritate him. He returned to his seat, and I resumed the subject
of the stuffed poodle, asking him boldly to tell me the story with which
the dog was connected. The demand seemed to impress him with no very
favorable opinion of my intellectual tastes; but he complied with it,
and related, not without many a wearisome digression to the subject of
his great work, the narrative which I propose calling by the name of
"The Yellow Mask." After the slight specimens that I have given of his
character and style of conversation, it will be almost unnecessary
for me to premise that I tell this story as I have told the last, and
"Sister Rose," in my own language, and according to my own plan in the
disposition of the incidents--adding nothing, of course, to the facts,
but keeping them within the limits which my disposable space prescribes
to me.

I may perhaps be allowed to add in this place, that I have not yet seen
or heard of my portrait in an engraved state. Professor Tizzi is
still alive; but I look in vain through the publishers' lists for an
announcement of his learned work on the Vital Principle. Possibly he
may be adding a volume or two to the twelve already completed, by way
of increasing the debt which a deeply obliged posterity is, sooner or
later, sure of owing to him.

THE PROFESSOR'S STORY OF THE YELLOW MASK.

PART FIRST.

CHAPTER I.

About a century ago, there lived in the ancient city of Pisa a famous
Italian milliner, who, by way of vindicating to all customers her
familiarity with Paris fashions, adopted a French title, and called
herself the Demoiselle Grifoni. She was a wizen little woman with a
mischievous face, a quick tongue, a nimble foot, a talent for business,
and an uncertain disposition. Rumor hinted that she was immensely rich,
and scandal suggested that she would do anything for money.

The one undeniable good quality which raised Demoiselle Grifoni above
all her rivals in the trade was her inexhaustible fortitude. She was
never known to yield an inch under any pressure of adverse circumstances
Thus the memorable occasion of her life on which she was threatened with
ruin was also the occasion on which she most triumphantly asserted the
energy and decision of her character. At the height of the demoiselle's
prosperity her skilled forewoman and cutter-out basely married and
started in business as her rival. Such