Year: 1877

warm. The upshot of it was, that a
meeting was appointed for the next
morning at eight o'clock, in Hyde
Park. The stranger then left me,
without entering the theatre; on
the contrary retraced my steps to my
box, in order to give the portrait a
few more touches. But it was only
to find the one opposite entirely de-
serted. The lady had vanished. 1
asked the door -keeper-"They have
just left in their carriage" was the
answer, but he knew nothing about
who they were. I fastened down
into the pit, to my merchant. He was
no longer there. My only consola-
tion now was the meeting in Hyde
Park, where / hoped at least to learn
the name OF my antagonist. At half
past seven, punctually, was there:
but IL I had stood there till this hour,
/ believe no one would have come.
In short, I lost every trace, for even
the merchant did the same day sud
denly sail for the Levant, without my
being able to see him. have since
shown the likeness to intimate
friends, but no one knew It, In vain
did / frnquent all the theatres in
London every night for two months;
but never have I succeeded in dis
covering the least trace or track OF
my beautiful incognito.


Henry's narrative had fully rivited
the attention OF every one, that it
was not observed, that the rain had
in the meantime re-commenced, and
that the darkness Of the night began
to spread around them. -
Frederick suffering under his recent
shock, stood buried In deep thought.
Mary gently took his hand, and said
In a low voice: fi


"What shall we do now, dear broth
er? We are truly in predicament. +"


Frederick reflected n moment, and
then said: 9li 4Tf teif.i'Hi


"Now that the rain has set in again
tho matter Is easily decided. 1 will
go down, aud send up the carriage
for you. am so uneasy that I really
long for cooling shower; and it is
high time. else night will set in be-
fore the carriage comes up f-t


A contention now arose among the
young men, who should be the one
to accompany him. He himself. would
have been glad to take Henry with
him, so as to question him touching
Lodoiska; but at the same time. 1t
seemed to him more proper that as
an older friend OF the house. he
should stay, SO that the three girls
would not be left alone with the OFF,
GERS. He therefore declined all COM
pany, though each one Of the officers
offered their services.


Without further. parley he left,
promising that in about an hours
time the carriage should be there to
take them away. sA


The stipulated time passed amidst
some anxiety. for after their natural
protector and kinsman had left them
the girls began distinctly to feel the
awkwardness OF their position.


The rain kept pouring down, and it
gradually grew quite dark. An hour
had now elapsed. but no carriage
could be heard. Night had now fully
set in. Mary now became quite un-
easy, half an hour beyond the, time
had passed away without any sign OF
succor. She now began to fear and
tremble. Had anything happened to
Frederick. or to her mother?


Neither Henry, nor the other men
could shut their eyes to the convic-
ton that something must have hap
pened, for two hours had now elapsed
since Frederick had departed They
began therefore to deliberate among
themselves what was to be done. anC
whether duty to their friend did mo-
require them seriously to investigate
the matter. All agreed in this. Henry
being the best acquainted with tho
road, undertook with yaromir, to &C
down; Rasinska and BoIeslaus staic
behind with the ladies. Henry and
Jaromir started. They promised thai
happen what might, they would bring
or rsend intelligence. Though still rain
ing. and very dark, yet the travellers
found little difficulty at first in fol-
lowing the right track. They thought
themselves quite near their destina.
tion, when all at once they found
themselves away from the road
fioundering through the long thick
grass, which shortly brought them tc
wide and deep ditch. filed with
water, after effecting a passage ovel
1t. they found themselves standing
against thick prickly hedge. BY
cropping along, Henry fortunately dis
covered a spot where they could cas-
lily get over it. After they had ad.
vanced few steps, they saw light
in the distance, which appeared as il
proceeding from one OF the out-build-
ings belonging to the palace But
they soon noticed that the light was
not stationary. but moving towards
them; and soon they saw people with
two lanterns. Rejoiced to fall in with
somebody, they proceeded to meet
them, and soon stepped on the trod'
den path which the others were APP
preaching. They being concealed by
the darkn, n,ss, and the other party ex,
posed by the light from the lanterns