ithout knowing the reason why, to be
flooded with enthusiasm for one knows not what. It was our lady's luck
to possess this charm, and to be able to give herself up wholly to the
end in view, and drink its glass to the dregs,--which in her life had
generally proved to be sugar and to be almost as good as the
liquid,--only requiring a spoon.

The concert, as is the way with summer concerts, was so arranged as to
be easily varied with something cool and refreshing; and when her escort
suggested that they should do as all the others did, a table was found,
and they sat down to ices and fairy cakes, amid the flowers and colored
lights.

It was about nine o'clock, and Rosina, in spite of the environments, was
beginning to realize forcibly that more interesting men than the one
before her undoubtedly did exist, when the ice that she was putting in
her mouth suddenly seemed to glide the full length of her spine, giving
her a terrible sensation of frozen fright. She had just heard somebody
behind her speaking in German to the _garcon_, and German, French, or
English, that voice was unmistakable. How, what, or why she knew not,
but _he_ was surely there behind her, and the instant after he passed
close at her side.

Of course it was Von Ibn, and the look that he gave her as he bowed, and
walked on at once, dyed her face as deeply as ever a face was dyed in
all the world before. She looked after him with a sort of gasp in her
eyes, forgetting the man opposite her, the crowd around her, everybody,
everything, except that one tall figure which with the passing of each
instant was disappearing more and more among the labyrinth of tables and
people. She saw him pause at last and seem to hesitate, and her heart
throbbed wildly in her throat as she felt, with that strange
instinctive intuition which continues to follow one train of thought
while our very life seems paralyzed by another, that if he took a seat
with his back to her, the action would be witness to a displeasure far
beyond what he must be feeling if he so placed himself as to be able to
watch her.

He stood still, with his usual halt for deliberation, and then, at the
end of a long minute, seated himself so that his profile was presented
to her view.

"Now," she said to herself, "he will look away very carefully for a
while, and then he will look at us;" and with the thought her breath
mounted tumultuously.

The music, which had been playing loudly, wound up to a c