e, and where several spectators were sitting,
among them Jansen and his betrothed. "Isn't she adorable?" whispered
Angelica, as she led her companion close up to the couple, who welcomed
him with a joyful exclamation. Indeed, it would have been impossible to
see anything more magnificent than this beautiful blonde girl, dressed
in the rich folds of a dark-red velvet dress, with puffed and slashed
sleeves, her beautiful neck bare, and wearing no other ornament than a
delicate Venetian chain; her blonde hair, slightly curled, flowing
freely over her shoulders, and set off by a few dark flowers. It seemed
to Felix, also, that he had never seen her in her real beauty before
to-day, and the sweetness of her expression completed the charm. Jansen
stood at her side in his dark suit, not less full of dignity and
character, but looking only like a courtier standing by the side of his
princess. They had neither of them danced, for he did not care for it,
and she did not like to fly through the hall with any one else. They at
once offered him a seat by their side, for Elfinger had once more taken
possession of his Suabian maid, and began a pleasant conversation, in
the course of which he could not help noticing that Julie now and then
threw in some playful allusion and smiled slyly, while they were
talking about the most ordinary things, just as Angelica had done
before. He dropped a word or two about his approaching departure, which
they did not seem to hear at all.

"Have you seen the lieutenant yet?" asked Julie, suddenly. "You ought
to look him up, he has been wandering about the whole room in search of
you. If I remember rightly he just went into the next room, possibly to
console himself with a glass of wine for his ill success in finding
you."

She smiled and laid one of her beautiful hands in that of her
betrothed, while with the other she played with her black fan.

Felix rose. A restless curiosity seized upon him.

"Sha'n't we go into that sanctum, too?" he said. "We might sit down
together at one of the little tables, and have some supper."

"Perhaps you will find better company," she replied, turning away from
him. "We are a couple of tiresome old lovers, and you are a young
Spanish lion who has not yet found his lioness. Go alone; we will
follow quite soon enough."

She nodded to him pleasantly, again with a peculiar expression. He left
them, shaking his head, and wound his way through the maze of dancers,
to t