red now
and then, as if with cold, and this aroused Ralph for an instant from
the painful reverie into which he had fallen; but he only drew the fur
robes more closely about her, and sunk into perfect unconsciousness of
her presence once more. Thus, in profound silence they reached the city,
and dashing onward, they drew up before the house to which Lina had been
conveyed only a few weeks before.

"This is the house," said Agnes, pushing the fur robes from around her;
and, without waiting for help, she sprang out, and mounted the steps
just as the door was opened by some one from within. A single word
passed between her and the servant, just as Ralph reached her side; but
he only heard her inquiring in the ordinary way for the young lady who
had just taken up her residence there.

The door was flung wide open, as if she had been expected, and the
servant led the way into what, in the dim light, seemed a small
drawing-room. The bland, warm atmosphere that filled this room would
have been most welcome, under other circumstances, after the severe cold
of the night; but now Ralph was hardly conscious either of the warmth,
or an atmosphere of blooming plants which floated luxuriously around
him. Rich jets of gas burned like fairy beads in the lower end of the
room, dimly revealing the small conservatory from which this fragrance
came, and affording a glimpse here and there of rich silk hangings and
pictures upon the wall, whose gorgeousness forced itself upon the
observation even in that dim twilight.

Ralph looked around with surprise; the place was so unlike anything he
had expected to find, that for the moment he lost sight of the object of
his coming. All at once he became conscious of a third presence--a soft
flutter of garments, and the movement of some person advancing towards
that portion of the room in which those tiny stars seemed burning.
Directly a glow of light burst over the whole apartment. The stars had
broken into brilliant jets of flame, and a tent of blossoms rose before
him, like some fairy nook flooded with radiance.

Half-way between this background of plants and the place he occupied,
stood a female, so gorgeously attired and so singular in her whole
appearance, that the young man uttered an exclamation of surprise, which
was answered by an angry start and an abrupt movement of the woman, who
was evidently both astonished and displeased by his presence there.

"What is this?" she said, haughtily;