of your own world, and this false enchantment will vanish."

I looked over the newspapers by chance. There I beheld the advertisement
of a celebrated _danseuse_ who appeared nightly at Niblo's. The
Signorina Caradolce had the reputation of being the most beautiful as
well as the most graceful woman in the world. I instantly dressed and
went to the theatre.

The curtain drew up. The usual semicircle of fairies in white muslin
were standing on the right toe around the enameled flower-bank of green
canvas, on which the belated prince was sleeping. Suddenly a flute is
heard. The fairies start. The trees open, the fairies all stand on
the left toe, and the queen enters. It was the Signorina. She bounded
forward amid thunders of applause, and, lighting on one foot, remained
poised in the air. Heavens! was this the great enchantress that had
drawn monarchs at her chariot-wheels? Those heavy, muscular limbs,
those thick ankles, those cavernous eyes, that stereotyped smile, those
crudely painted cheeks! Where were the vermeil blooms, the liquid,
expressive eyes, the harmonious limbs of Animula?

The Signorina danced. What gross, discordant movements! The play of
her limbs was all false and artificial Her bounds were painful athletic
efforts; her poses were angular and distressed the eye. I could bear it
no longer; with an exclamation of disgust that drew every eye upon me,
I rose from my seat in the very middle of the Signorina's
_pas-de-fascination_ and abruptly quitted the house.

I hastened home to feast my eyes once more on the lovely form of
my sylph. I felt that henceforth to combat this passion would be
impossible. I applied my eyes to the lens. Animula was there--but what
could have happened? Some terrible change seemed to have taken place
during my absence. Some secret grief seemed to cloud the lovely features
of her I gazed upon. Her face had grown thin and haggard; her limbs
trailed heavily; the wondrous lustre of her golden hair had faded. She
was ill--ill, and I could not assist her! I believe at that moment I
would have forfeited all claims to my human birthright if I could only
have been dwarfed to the size of an animalcule, and permitted to console
her from whom fate had forever divided me.

I racked my brain for the solution of this mystery. What was it that
afflicted the sylph? She seemed to suffer intense pain. Her features
contracted, and she even writhed, as if with some internal agony. The
wondrous fo