nd a bitter smile curled from her lip.

"Mademoiselle," said Percy, solemnly, "the foot-lights enable you to
move man to a hundred passions."

"Yes; it reduces me to the level of a harlequin, to be laughed with, and
laughed _at_. Who are _my_ friends? Are they the idle boys who send me
bouquets and never mention my name without looking unutterable things?
Have I no tastes, no likings, no feelings, no emotions? In the name of
God, was I created only to memorize so many lines of Racine, Corneille,
or Voltaire per diem?"

It was a tone of almost ferocity with which she spoke, and the trembling
lip, the flashing eye, and the swollen veins on her temple betrayed the
self-scorn racking her heart within her.

A bang at the hall-door, and heavy footsteps on the marble pavement,
forced her to composure.

"Old-maidish to the last!" (the lady commenced picking the dead leaves
off a geranium). "This geranium looks as if you had watched it a year;
and this old gray hat, I suppose, you have hung above it for good luck."

"The hat belongs to a friend abroad, and is not to be moved until his
safe return; but the geranium was presented not a week ago by my
ever-faithful money. You see the magic charm. Here are careful watching,
weeks of anxiety, and, no doubt, a modicum of affection (for I _have_
heard people say they loved flowers), bartered away for one _milreis_."

"Apropos of money,--I thought I was to have a view of the treasures of
Aladdin, locked up in the vaults below."

"Of a surety you shall."

Reed excused himself, and in a short time reappeared, bearing a large
iron casket. Mademoiselle Milan's face turned a shade or two paler when
she saw him; for he was accompanied by Edgar Fay. It had now become
quite dark, and Percy Reed lighted the gas-jet before opening the
casket. It was made in imitation of the ordinary iron safe, but opening
at the top.

When the glare of the gas struck the dark recesses of the velvet lining,
a gleam of radiance shot up that fairly dazzled. Great grains of light,
large as peas, shimmered and glittered with an unearthly brilliancy.
Blue, purple, violet, and a gorgeous white that combined the whole,
sparkled in their turn with weird splendor. It looked like a flash from
heaven turned suddenly on a startled world. Both Mademoiselle Milan and
Fay stood breathless with astonishment, and it was many minutes before
they regained their composure.

Hearing the heavy rumbling caused by the loweri