ing."

"The second,--only the second, on honor," said he, breaking the seal,
and running his eye over the contents. "It seems she cannot see me
to-day. The Heathcote family are all in grief and confusion; some smash
in America has involved them in heavy loss. Trover, you may remember,
was in a fright about it last night. She'll meet me, however, at the
masked ball to-night, where we can confer together. She's to steal out
unperceived, and I'm to recognize her by a yellow domino with a little
tricolored cross on the sleeve. Don't be jealous, Ludlow, though it does
look suspicious."

"Jealous! I should think not," said the other, insolently.

"Come, come, you 'll not pretend to say she is n't worth it, Ludlow, nor
you 'll not affect to be indifferent to her."

"I wish to Heaven I _was_ indifferent to her; next to having never met
her, it would be the best thing I know of," said he, rising, and walking
the room with hurried steps. "I tell you, Stocmar, if ever there was an
evil destiny, I believe that woman to be mine. I don't think I love her,
I cannot say to my own heart that I do, and yet there she is, mistress
of my fate, to make me or mar me, just as she pleases."

"Which means, simply, that you are madly in love with her," said
Stocmar.

"No such thing; I 'd do far more to injure than to serve her this
minute. If I never closed my eyes last night, it was plotting how to
overreach her,--how I should wreck her whole fortune in life, and leave
her as destitute as I am myself."

"The sentiment is certainly amiable," said Stocmar, smiling.

"I make no pretence to generosity about her," said Paten, sternly; "nor
is it between men like you and myself fine sentiments are bandied."

"Fine sentiments are one thing, master, an unreasonable antipathy is
another," said Stocmar. "And it would certainly be too hard if we were
to pursue with our hatred every woman that could not love us."

"She _did_ love me once,--at least, she said so," broke in Paten.

"Be grateful, therefore, for the past. I know I'd be very much her
debtor for any show of present tenderness, and give it under my hand
never to bear the slightest malice whenever it pleased her to change her
mind."

"By Heaven! Stocmar," cried Paten, passionately, "I begin to believe you
have been playing me false all this time, telling her all about me, and
only thinking of how to advance your own interests with her."

"You wrong me egregiously, then," said Stocmar