that of the smoker, and went on his way,
singing, _Los Toros a la puerta_."

"But who was the smoker?"

"Who could he be, but the Prince of Darkness in person, who had laid a
wager with Pluto that he would frighten Don Juan De Murana, and went
back to his place furious at having lost?

"If you would learn more of Don Juan de Murana, how he went to his own
funeral, and died at last in the odor of sanctity, read that most
spirited series of letters, _De Paris a Cadix_, wherein Alexander Dumas
has surpassed himself. And now, Good night!"

A STORY WITHOUT A NAME[M]

Written For The International Monthly Magazine

BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ.

_Continued from Page 348._

CHAPTER XIV.

Occasionally in the life of man, as in the life of the
world--History--or in the course of a stream towards the sea, come quiet
lapses, sunny and calm, reflecting nothing but the still motionless
objects around, or the blue sky and moving clouds above. Often too we
find that this tranquil expanse of silent water follows quickly after
some more rapid movement, comes close upon some spot where a dashing
rapid has diversified the scene, or a cataract, in roar and confusion
and sparkling terror, has broken the course of the stream.

Such a still pause, silent of action--if I may use the term--followed
the events which I have related in the last chapter, extending over a
period of nearly six months. Nothing happened worthy of any minute
detail. Peace and tranquillity dwelt in the various households which I
have noticed in the course of this story, enlivened in that of Sir
Philip Hastings by the gay spirit of Emily Hastings, although somewhat
shadowed by the sterner character of her father; and in the household of
Mrs. Hazleton brightened by the light of hope, and the fair prospect of
success in all her schemes which for a certain time continued to open
before her.

Mr. Marlow only spent two days at her house, and then went away to
London, but whatever effect her beauty might have produced upon him, his
society, brief as it was, served but to confirm her feelings towards
him, and before he left her, she had made up her mind fully and
entirely, with her characteristic vigor and strength of resolution, that
her marriage with Mr. Marlow was an event which must and should be.
There was under this conviction, but not the less strong, not the less
energetic, not the less vehement, for being concealed even from
herself--a resolution that n