yes met eyes; but he could not quite understand
the expression of hers. They were full of tender entreaty, but there was
something more that he could not interpret. Though his heart seemed to
labour in his throat, he would allow no delight or agitation to turn him
from his task. Looking still in her face, he passed on to the mightiest
charm he knew. Suddenly the lady turned and walked out of the door
of her reflected chamber. A moment after she entered his room with
veritable presence; and, forgetting all his precautions, he sprang from
the charmed circle, and knelt before her. There she stood, the living
lady of his passionate visions, alone beside him, in a thundery
twilight, and the glow of a magic fire.

"Why," said the lady, with a trembling voice, "didst thou bring a poor
maiden through the rainy streets alone?"

"Because I am dying for love of thee; but I only brought thee from the
mirror there."

"Ah, the mirror!" and she looked up at it, and shuddered. "Alas! I am
but a slave, while that mirror exists. But do not think it was the power
of thy spells that drew me; it was thy longing desire to see me, that
beat at the door of my heart, till I was forced to yield."

"Canst thou love me then?" said Cosmo, in a voice calm as death, but
almost inarticulate with emotion.

"I do not know," she replied sadly; "that I cannot tell, so long as I am
bewildered with enchantments. It were indeed a joy too great, to lay my
head on thy bosom and weep to death; for I think thou lovest me, though
I do not know;--but----"

Cosmo rose from his knees.

"I love thee as--nay, I know not what--for since I have loved thee,
there is nothing else."

He seized her hand: she withdrew it.

"No, better not; I am in thy power, and therefore I may not."

She burst into tears, and kneeling before him in her turn, said--

"Cosmo, if thou lovest me, set me free, even from thyself; break the
mirror."

"And shall I see thyself instead?"

"That I cannot tell, I will not deceive thee; we may never meet again."

A fierce struggle arose in Cosmo's bosom. Now she was in his power. She
did not dislike him at least; and he could see her when he would. To
break the mirror would be to destroy his very life to banish out of his
universe the only glory it possessed. The whole world would be but a
prison, if he annihilated the one window that looked into the paradise
of love. Not yet pure in love, he hesitated.

With a wail of sorrow the lady