lms of Canano, who said,--

"I don't pity you with that fine hair of yours, and if you like to put it
on a card I will allow you a thousand sequins for it."

She gave no answer to this polite speech, and held out her plate to me,
and I put a handful of sequins on it, treating the other beggars in the
same way.

"Pierrot seems to like beggars," said Canano, with a smile.

The three mendicants bowed gratefully to me and left the room.

The Marquis Triulzi who sat near Canano, said,--

"The beggar in the straw-coloured dress is certainly Casanova."

"I recognized him directly," replied the banker, "but who are the
others?"

"We shall find out in due time."

"A dearer costume could not be imagined; all the dresses are quite new."

The thousand sequins came in, and I carried them all off in two deals.

"Would you like to go on playing?" said Canano.

I shook my head, and indicating with a sign of my hand that I would take
a cheque, he weighed my winnings and gave me a cheque for twenty-nine
pounds of gold, amounting to two thousand, five hundred sequins. I put
away the cheque, and after shaking him by the hand, I got up and rolled
away in true Pierrot fashion, and after making the tour of the ball-room
I went to a box on the third tier of which I had given the key to the
young officer, and there I found my beggars.

We took off our masks and congratulated each other on our success, and
told our adventures. We had nothing to fear from inquisitive eyes, for
the boxes on each side of us were empty. I had taken them myself, and the
keys were in my pocket.

The fair beggars talked of returning me the alms I had given them, but I
replied in such a way that they said no more about it.

"I am taken for you, sir," said the marquis, "and it may cause some
annoyance to our fair friends here."

"I have foreseen that," I replied, "and I shall unmask before the end of
the ball. This will falsify all suppositions, and nobody will succeed in
identifying you."

"Our pockets are full of sweetmeats," said Mdlle. Q----. "Everybody
wanted to fill our plates."

"Yes," said the cousin, "everybody admired us; the ladies came down from
their boxes to have a closer view of us, and everyone said that no richer
disguise could be imagined."

"You have enjoyed yourselves, then?"

"Yes, indeed."

"And I too. I feel quite boastful at having invented a costume which has
drawn all eyes upon you, and yet has concealed your identity."