de of you.
Come, now get in! I close them up. You are lost to view. There is
nothing to be seen but a crack around the shell! Now it has gone!
There, my friends; as I hold it on high, behold the magic egg, exactly
as it was when I first took it out of the box, into which I will place
it again, with the cloth and the wand and the little red bag, and shut
it up with a snap. I will let you take one more look at this box
before I put it away behind the scenes. Are you satisfied with what I
have shown you? Do you think it is really as wonderful as you supposed
it would be?"

At these words the whole audience burst into riotous applause, during
which Loring disappeared, but he was back in a moment.

"Thank you!" he cried, bowing low, and waving his arms before him in
the manner of an Eastern magician making a salaam. From side to side
he turned, bowing and thanking, and then, with a hearty "Good-by to
you; good-by to you all!" he stepped back and let down the curtain.

For some moments the audience remained in their seats as if they were
expecting something more, and then they rose quietly and began to
disperse. Most of them were acquainted with one another, and there was
a good deal of greeting and talking as they went out of the theatre.

When Loring was sure the last person had departed, he turned down the
lights, locked the door, and gave the key to the steward of the club.

He walked to his home a happy man. His exhibition had been a perfect
success, with not a break or a flaw in it from beginning to end.

"I feel," thought the young man, as he strode along, "as if I could fly
to the top of that steeple, and flap and crow until all the world heard
me."

That evening, as was his daily custom, Herbert Loring called upon Miss
Starr. He found the young lady in the library.

"I came in here," she said, "because I have a good deal to talk to you
about, and I do not want interruptions."

With this arrangement the young man expressed his entire satisfaction,
and immediately began to inquire the cause of her absence from his
exhibition in the afternoon.

"But I was there," said Edith. "You did not see me, but I was there.
Mother had a headache, and I went by myself."

"You were there!" exclaimed Loring, almost starting from his chair. "I
don't understand. You were not in your seat."

"No," answered Edith. "I was on the very back row of seats.
You could not see me, and I did not wish you to see me."