sion at the opera.

"Full well--alas! do I remember it," I exclaimed, pressing passionately
the delicate hand which offered the glasses for my inspection. They
formed a complex and magnificent toy, richly chased and filigreed, and
gleaming with jewels, which, even in the deficient light, I could not
help perceiving were of high value.

"Eh bien! mon ami" she resumed with a certain empressment of manner that
rather surprised me--"Eh bien! mon ami, you have earnestly besought of
me a favor which you have been pleased to denominate priceless. You
have demanded of me my hand upon the morrow. Should I yield to your
entreaties--and, I may add, to the pleadings of my own bosom--would I
not be entitled to demand of you a very--a very little boon in return?"

"Name it!" I exclaimed with an energy that had nearly drawn upon us the
observation of the company, and restrained by their presence alone
from throwing myself impetuously at her feet. "Name it, my beloved, my
Eugenie, my own!--name it!--but, alas! it is already yielded ere named."

"You shall conquer, then, mon ami," said she, "for the sake of the
Eugenie whom you love, this little weakness which you have at last
confessed--this weakness more moral than physical--and which, let
me assure you, is so unbecoming the nobility of your real nature--so
inconsistent with the candor of your usual character--and which, if
permitted further control, will assuredly involve you, sooner or later,
in some very disagreeable scrape. You shall conquer, for my sake, this
affectation which leads you, as you yourself acknowledge, to the tacit
or implied denial of your infirmity of vision. For, this infirmity
you virtually deny, in refusing to employ the customary means for its
relief. You will understand me to say, then, that I wish you to wear
spectacles;--ah, hush!--you have already consented to wear them, for my
sake. You shall accept the little toy which I now hold in my hand,
and which, though admirable as an aid to vision, is really of no very
immense value as a gem. You perceive that, by a trifling modification
thus--or thus--it can be adapted to the eyes in the form of spectacles,
or worn in the waistcoat pocket as an eye-glass. It is in the former
mode, however, and habitually, that you have already consented to wear
it for my sake."

This request--must I confess it?--confused me in no little degree. But
the condition with which it was coupled rendered hesitation, of course,
a ma