the window many and many a time; and to see you," said
Ormiston, making a grimace undercover of the darkness, "is to love! She
told me so herself."

"What! That she loved me!" exclaimed Sir Norman, his notions of
propriety to the last degree shocked by such a revelation.

"Not altogether, she only looked that; but she said she knew you well
by sight, and by heart, too, as I inferred from her countenance when
she said it. There now, don't make me talk any more, for I have told you
everything I know, and am about hoarse with my exertions."

"One thing only--did she tell you who she was?"

"No, except that her name was Leoline, and nothing else--which struck me
as being slightly improbable. Doubtless, she will tell you everything,
and one piece of advice I may venture to give you, which is, you may
propose as soon as you like without fear of rejection. Here we are at
the Golden Crown, so go in and get your horse, and let us be off."

All this time Ormiston had been leading his own horse by the bridle, and
as Sir Norman silently complied with this suggestion, in five minutes
more they were in their saddles, and galloping at breakneck speed toward
the city. To tell the truth, one was not more inclined for silence than
the other, and the profoundest and thoughtfulest silence was maintained
till they reached it. One was thinking of Leoline, the other of La
Masque, and both were badly in love, and just at that particular moment
very happy. Of course the happiness of people in that state never lasts
longer than half an hour at a stretch, and then they are plunged back
again into misery and distraction; but while it does last, it in, very
intense and delightful indeed.

Our two friends having drained the bitten, had got to the bottom of the
cup, and neither knew that no sooner were the sweets swallowed, than
it was to be replenished with a doubly-bitter dose. Neither of them
dismounted till they reached the house of Leoline, and there Sir Norman
secured his horse, and looked up at it with a beating heart. Not that
it was very unusual for his heart to beat, seeing it never did anything
else; but on that occasion its motion was so much accelerated, that any
doctor feeling his pulse might have justly set him down as a bad case
of heart-disease. A small, bright ray of light streamed like a beacon
of hope from an upper window, and the lover looked at it as a clouded
mariner might at the shining of the North Star.

"Are you comi