but one wish, one hope--to
see her idol's face no more, nor hear his wheedling tongue, that had
ruined her peace.

The exquisite Mr. Falcon was received by Rosa Lusignan with a certain
tremor that flattered his hopes. He told her, in charming language, how
he had admired her at first sight, then esteemed her, then loved her.

She blushed and panted, and showed more than once a desire to interrupt
him, but was too polite. She heard him out with rising dismay, and he
offered her his hand and heart.

But by this time she had made up her mind what to say. "O Mr. Falcon!"
she cried, "how can you speak to me in this way? Why, I am engaged.
Didn't you know?"

"No; I am sure you are not, or you would never have given me the
encouragement you have."

"Oh, all engaged young ladies flirt--a little; and everybody here knows
I am engaged to Dr. Staines."

"Why, I never saw him here."

Rosa's tact was a quality that came and went; so she blushed, and
faltered out, "We had a little tiff, as lovers will."

"And you did me the honor to select me as cat's-paw to bring him on
again. Was not that rather heartless?"

Rosa's fitful tact returned to her.

"Oh, sir, do not think so ill of me. I am not heartless, I am only
unwise; and you are so superior to the people about you; I could not
help appreciating you, and I thought you knew I was engaged, and so I
was less on my guard. I hope I shall not lose your esteem, though I have
no right to anything more. Ah! I see by your face I have behaved very
ill: pray forgive me."

And with this she turned on the waters of the Nile, better known to you,
perhaps, as "crocodile tears."

Falcon was a gentleman on the surface, and knew he should only make
matters worse by quarrelling with her. So he ground his teeth, and said,
"May your own heart never feel the pangs you have inflicted. I shall
love you and remember you till my dying day."

He bowed ceremoniously and left her.

"Ay," said he to himself, "I WILL remember you, you heartless jilt, and
the man you have jilted me for. Staines is his d--d name, is it?"

He drove back crestfallen, bitter, and, for once in his life,
heart-sick, and drew up at his lodgings. Here he found attendants
waiting to receive him.

A sheriff's officer took his dogcart and horse under a judgment; the
disturbance this caused collected a tiny crowd, gaping and grinning, and
brought Phoebe's white face and eyes swollen with weeping to the window.

Falcon s