Litchfield enquirer., 1867-07-04
: How did she receive you?" I asked.


 thanked me for what did last night. And then told her. That was my advantage ground, you know. But I thought I dis honored myself by accepting 1t for she could not now repulse me as she might have done if had placed her under obli- gation to me. Something of this 1 said And then ! knew that my avowal was not painful to her, that she was proud and glad to owe anything to me. But she said quite calml y, and her luminous eyes looked upwlth sweet frankness-thatw when Iknew her history might wish all this unsaid; from what she knew of me she could not doubt it would be so; and here the color all tluttered out of her face. But she would not blame me. She would not blame me, she repeated. hen she said she had an imperative engagement tonight, but she would return early, and might come to her then. She would tell me all that ought to know"
 "Sha has virtually owned that there is something to be concealed, that she is not the well-born, opulent, independent lady that We have taken her to be-"
 "Don't croak, dear Nell! She may be poor. l think she is. There was only a small fire in the grate, and Norine set in a wilderness of sparkling shreds and light, floating fabrics-converting old fashions into new ones, Miss Aubusson told mo. so as an apology for Norines rudeness. The woman actually snubbed her mistress
 And Miss Aubusson?"
 "Only said quietly that Norine had been her mothers maid, and they were used to her humors."
 "A French maid in her mothers time! But what of the man who was here last night?"
 "She grew pale and distressed at the bare mention of him, and said that, asleep or awake, he was never out of her thoughts never anything but @ source of pain and foreboding to her. And this she said with sob that shook her from head to foot "
 A silence followed our talk I read the magazines quietly. Carl pretended to do the same. But could see that his impa- tience was wearing upon him. His fine face was beautiful with vivid color, his eyes preternaturally bright.
 ''Shall we go somewhere?" l said, at length.
 ':Oh, thank you, Nelly! I should like it!'
 We went out into the intense, winter night. Sublimely calm, the constellated heavens brooded over the restless world Unmindful of the crowds, we walked on, and the benedictlon of the night fell upon us.
 'It is not what I want though" said Carl impatiently. " If l could walk off this excitement somehow! But the glory of the night will only intensity 1t. An, Nelly, come in here!'
 ''Go in here! Carl, are you crazy?" He did not heed me.
 It was a second or third-rate theatre The great masses thronged here Common faces were all around us; some were gross faces that leered stupidly at us, dull souls not up to the finer forms of art, uncultiva- ted natures that cheered the ranting actor, and went into raptures over the pert ac- tresses who shamed their sex.
 The spacious house was already crowded. Our seats were far down toward the stage, where no innocent illusions were possible. The pasteboard, the taWdriness of the the scenes, the roaring pillows of blue cambric, the tinsel, the rouge and powder, l were unmitigatedly obvious. The play was one of those quasi moral ones where the rascally hero Is overcome with confusion, and piously repents at the 0enouenaent, amid the vociferous applause of the galleries. But tonight the galleries were inattentive; there was an occasional hiss during the long -drawn-out scenes, and in the inter 1 ludes shrill calls for somebody whose name did not catch.
 "They want Mademoiselle - again 1 lost the name-said our next neighbor to Carl, "The famous danseuse, you know! Never have seen her! Is it possible?" and the portly gentleman shrugged his shoul- ders between surprise and pity. "You see this is her last night" he ex- plained. It was said that her engagement was up, but she was persuaded to appear once more. And l should think 1t must be temptation. She earns fabulous sums, I'm told for a woman.'
 Carl sat silent through all this his hand some face immobile What he thought of the coarse people around us; of the extra ordinary toilettes; of the rude girls who giggied and maneuvred to catch the eye of such remarkably handsome man; of the stale odors; of the cerulean lake upon the i curtain which lacked the enchantment oi distance and showed crude and coarse; of the gamboge sky and the two blotches of purple that were meant for mountains, l could not guess, for he neither looked at me nor spoke. think that Miss Aubus- sons face came between him and all these things, supplanting their dreariness by her glorious beauty
 As sat thinking that this was our first contact with things of this sort, a ravish- ly sweet melody stole out, low, delicate, sin uous, aerial, stilling every breath, al turing the pulsing throng to silence, beguil- ing the senses, flowing now into subtle, sil- yer waves that rose and fell, and rose and fell, like pellucid waters upon some charm ed shore; and, rising and falling, swaying upon that thread of honied melody, borne as the wave bears the froth upon its bo- som, the danseuse-not woman but fal- ry, no fairy, but embodied music-her transparent, snowy drapery halolng her like cloud, her lily face shining out of mist of golden hair, and so at last, when the eve and the ear are enchained, drift ing toward the footGghts, and bending in graceful obeisance before the hundreds of adoring faces.
 ''Great Godn
 The smothered cry leaped all -unawares from Carls lips.
 The girl grew white as the faces that cov- cred her throbbing heart, and the dark, in tense eyes fell as by some irresistible al- 1 lurement upon us.
 It was Miss Aubusson!
 There, under that storm of coarse ap plause, the target for those bold eyes, her exquisite grace, her rare beauty on exhibl- ton, profaned by the gaze of all the world, sold for money!
 A moment she bent before the wonder ing people, nothing alive about the white,