culty in learning
his name, for every one called him by it at each instant, and "Fred
Falkoner" was heard on all sides. It was he who selected the music for
the dance; his partner, for the time being, was the belle of the room,
and he lounged about supreme. Nor was his title a bad one,--he was the
great entertainer of the whole assembly. The refreshments were almost
entirely of his ordering, and the clink of his dollars might be heard
keeping merry time with the strains of the violins. I watched him
with some interest; I thought I could see that, in descending to such
companionship, there was a secret combat between his self-respect and a
strange passion for seeing life in low places, which, when added to
the flattery such a man invariably obtains from his inferiors, is a
dangerous and subtle temptation. The more I studied him, the stronger
grew this conviction,--nay, at times, the expression of scorn upon his
handsome features was legible even to the least remarking. It was
while I still continued to watch him that he passed me, with a dark,
Spanish-looking girl upon his arm, When he turned round suddenly, and,
staring at me fixedly a few seconds, said, "We met once before, to-day."

"I am not aware of it," said I, doubtingly.

"Yes, yes. I never forget a face, least of all when it resembles yours.
I saw you this morning at the 'Picayune.'"

"True, I was there."

"What a precious set of rascals those fellows were! You supposed that
they were going to join the expedition. Not a bit of it. Some were
gamblers; the greater number thieves and pickpockets. I know them all;
and, indeed, I was going to warn you about them, for I saw you were a
stranger, but I lost sight of you in the crowd. But there's the music.
Will you have a partner?"

"With all my heart," said I, glad to encourage our further acquaintance.

"You speak Spanish?"

"Not a word."

"Well, no matter. If you did, you should have mine here. But what say
you to Mademoiselle Heloise, yonder?--a bit faded or so; but I remember
her second 'Bal-larina' at the Havana, only two years back."

I made the suitable acknowledgment; and the next moment saw me whirling
away in a waltz, at least in such an approximation to that measure as
my Quebec experience suggested, with a very highly rouged and
black-eyebrowed "danseuse." My French was better than my dancing; and
so Mademoiselle Heloise was satisfied to accept my arm, while we paraded
the room, discussing the co