Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-09-30

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could manage to procure tickets without
suspicion; the disguise would be effectu-
4 al, and Hortense would probably have
had quite enough before the hour came
f, for unmasking, when they would quietly
! slip off and home again, with no one the
wiser, madame's caprice gratified and no
harm done.
! Hortense was delighted with the plan,
and left it entirely to Nine. Lenor-
mand's management, declaring that she
would rather have it all a surprise, with a
childish delight in anticipating a glimpse
into what seemed to her sort of fairy-land.
| And truly it was world as wonderful
as any FARMLAND she could have fallen
into, to this convent bred little girl, de.
spite her position, as ignorant as child
of things familiar enough to another 1t
was a metamorphosis as complete as Gin
derella's. Some of these merry-makers
might have starved Yesterday in a garnet;
they might lie CHASTITY and stiff to morrow
under the waters of the river; but tonight
the world was all their own-g1asettes,
ouurters, poor devils! for a few hours they
were kings and queens, and they kept
| their state generously. Such unteigned
gayety, such utter surrender to the intoxi.
cation Of the moment, amazed Hortense,
all inexperienced as she was. Her blood
came and went to the beat of the music;
she caught her breath at every watt of per-
frme; the clash of color and sound, evolv-
ing harmony from its own irregular
rhythm, stirred vague melody in the con
fusion of her untried sehses; the formless
whirling crowd seemed to catch her wolf.
ton in its sweep, and toss it in and out
like IL leaf on the wind. With a feeling
of losing her personality, she shrank aside
from the revel, unconscious of a figure for
some time near to her, moving as she
moved and pauslng where she paused.
"Will not the Queen of Heaven deign
to smile on the humblest of her adorers?
l come from affair to worship" said
voice, suddenly, low in her ear; and turn
ing with start, she saw man clad in
pilgrims garb, with staff in hand. The
large cloak concealed his figure; the mask
hid his face; only his eyes were visible,
and, significant, intense, gazed steadfastly
on the young girl
| "Gentlc pilgrim" answered Hortense,
after one startled glance to assure herself
OF her chaperon's nearness, entering with
instructive feminine coquetry into the
spirit OF the scene, "you come too late,
and find only a waning moon;' and she
| dropped her crescent low
| All, suffer me then to await her rising
thus" he exclaimed, throwing himself at
| her feet
Bewaren' she said, archly. Know
you not that to sleep in the moons light
is to peril sense and sight?"
| ITO peril?' he repeated. may, look
on me, then and see if be not deaf and
blind already-to aught save her." and
with quick movement he raised his
mask and gazed up at her with look
into which he had thrown a subtety of
expression that spoke well for his powers
of acting.
| During this dialogue they had been
standing apart in the recess of a balconied
window, so that the moving .hrong was
behind him, and none but his companion
saw his face twas asingularly handsome
face, youthful in feature, yet with the force
and fire Of manhood-a face that looked
as if at whatsoever shrine it might kneel,
it was not wont to kneel in vain. SO much
Hortense saw in the brief glimpse, and
with it passionate purpose, a strangely
mingled intensity, that made her color
| change and her eyes droop even under
her mask. When she lifted them again
his mask was restored, and nothing was
visible but his eyes, challenging her as
before. With half-conscious shyness
she turned away, and taking Nine. Lenor-
mand's arm walked in among the merry
makers. But wherever they moved he
followed, till by-and-by the trio began to
| attract attention-the slight, transparently-
robed figure, with its luminous crescent,
sheltered in the voluminous draperies of
the elder woman, and "A stealthy, dark
shape, like creeping cloud, following
step for step in their wake.
Behold portentn' cried one; "the
full moon with the newrn
"And the dark swallowing up bothr
put in another.
Have care, Mile Moon the dark is
dangerous" Knocked figure in IA bizarre
butterfly robe.
Hortense's sable attendant made some
light retort, which random as it was, told
surely nevertheless, for loud laugh fol-
lowed, as, with one angry flash of the
black eyes beneath her mask, the human
butterfly fluttered away into the crowd.
In this way he continued to keep every
one at a distance, while Hortense, half
tluttered by this persistent chase, half re-
lieved to be freed from other pursuit of
creatures so unfamiliar to her, came in
stinctively to turn for help to this bold
stranger, as much of friend as enemy
But when the hour for unmasking ap.
preached she began to question uneasily
how TO escape without being observed
Finally she succeeded in dispatching her
sable follower on some pretext, and that
done, hastily slipping into the crowd,
stole away unmarked on Nine. Lenor-
mand's arm.
Doubtless il was the unaccustomed ex-
element that drove sleep from the pillow
of the conventbred girl. AT all events,
when Nine. Lenormand the next day no.
ticed the laDguor and pallor of her charge,