er the
performance, thickly veiled and wrapped in her ermine cloak, the handsome
young man was standing by it with his hat off, and he opened the door for
her. She was kind enough to allow him to get in with her and during their
drive she talked to him in the most charming manner, but she was cruel
enough to dismiss him without pity before they reached her house, and
this she did every time. For she went to the theater each night now, and
every evening she received an ardent note, and every evening she allowed
the amorous swain to accompany her as far as her house, and men were
beginning to envy him on account of his brilliant conquest, when a
catastrophe happened which was very surprising for all concerned.

The husband of the lady in whose eyes the Pole had found favor, surprised
the loving couple one day under circumstances which made any
justification impossible. But while he, trembling with rage and jealousy,
was drawing a small Circassian dagger which hung against the wall from
its sheath, and as his wife threw herself, half-fainting, on to a couch,
the young Pole had hastily put the false curls on to his head, and had
slipped into the silk dress and the sable cloak which he had been wearing
when he came into his mistress's boudoir. "What does this mean," the
husband stammered, "Valeska?"--"Yes, sir," the young Pole replied;
"Valeska, who has come here to show your wife a few love letters,
which." ... "No, no," the deceived, but nevertheless guilty, husband said
in imploring accents; "no, that is quite unnecessary." And at the same
time he put the dagger back into its sheath. "Very well then, there is a
truce between us," the Pole observed coolly, "but do not forget what
weapons I possess, and which I mean to retain against all contingencies."

Then the gentlemen bowed politely to each other, and the unexpected
meeting came to an end.

From that time forward, the terms on which the young married couple lived
together assumed the character of that everlasting peace, which President
Grant once promised to the whole world in his message to all nations. The
young woman did not find it necessary to make her lover put on
petticoats, and the husband constantly accompanied the real Valeska a
good deal further than he did the false one on that memorable occasion.

CHRISTMAS EVE

"The Christmas-eve supper![8] Oh! no, I shall never go in for that again!"
Stout Henri Templier said that in a furious voice, as if so