rch. To aid me, I lighted a lucifer match,
and by its flickering glare I saw right in front of me that beautiful
pale face, enclosed as it were in a frame by the little window. She
blushed at the fixedness of my gaze, for I utterly forgot myself in my
admiration, and stared as though at a picture. My match went out, and I
lit another. Alas! there she was still, and I could not force myself to
turn away, but gazed on in rapture.

"I'm sorry to give you this trouble, sir," said she, in some confusion.
"Pray never mind it. It will doubtless be found this evening when we
arrive."

Another lucifer, and now I pretended to be in most eager pursuit; but
somehow my eyes would look up and rest upon her sweet countenance.

"A diamond bracelet, you said?" muttered I, not knowing what I was
saying.

"No, sir, mere jet, and of no value whatever, save to myself. I am
really distressed at all the inconvenience I have occasioned you. I
entreat you to think no more of it."

My match was out, and I had not another. "Was ever a man robbed of such
ecstasy for a mere pennyworth of stick and a little sulphur? O Fortune!
is not this downright cruelty?"

As I mumbled my complaints, I searched away with an honest zeal, patting
the cushions all over, and poking away into most inscrutable pockets
and recesses, while she, in a most beseeching tone, apologized for her
request and besought me to forget it.

"Found! found!" cried I, in true delight, as I chanced upon the treasure
at my feet.

"Oh, sir, you have made me so happy, and I am so much obliged, and so
grateful to you!"

"Not another word, I beseech you," whispered I; "you are actually
turning my head with ecstasy. Give me your hand, let me clasp it on your
arm, and I am repaid."

"Will you kindly pass it to me, sir, through the window?" said she,
timidly.

"Ah!" cried I, in anguish, "your gratitude has been very fleeting."

She muttered something I could not catch, but I heard the rustle of her
sleeve against the window-frame, and dark as it was, pitch dark, I knew
her hand was close to me. Opening the bracelet, I passed it round her
wrist as reverently as though it were the arm of a Queen of Spain, one
touch of whom is high treason. I trembled so, that it was some
seconds before I could make the clasp meet. This done, I felt she was
withdrawing her hand, when, with something like that headlong impulse
by which men set their lives on one chance, I seized the fingers in my
gr