, and so evidently in love, at
the small side door of the Opera House every night, when she got out of
her antediluvian rickety fly, and also when she got into it again after
the performance, that she could not help noticing him. Soon, he began to
follow her wherever she went, and once he summoned up courage to speak
to her, when she had been to see a friend in a remote suburb. He was
very nervous, but she thought all that he said very clear and logical,
and she did not hesitate for a moment to confess that she returned his
love.

"You have made me the happiest, and at the same time the most wretched
of men," he said after a pause.

"What do you mean?" she said innocently.

"Do you not belong to another man?" he asked her in a sad voice.

She shook her abundant, light curls.

"Up till now, I have belonged to myself alone, and I will prove it to
you, by requesting you to call upon me frequently and without restraint.
Everyone shall know that we are lovers. I am not ashamed of belonging to
an honorable man, but I will not sell myself."

"But your splendid apartments, and your dresses," her lover interposed
shyly, "you cannot pay for them out of your salary."

"My mother has won a large prize in the lottery, or made a hit on the
Stock Exchange." And with these words, the determined girl cut short all
further explanations.

That same evening the young man paid his first visit, to the horror of
the girl's mother, who was so devoted to the Stock Exchange, and he came
again the next day, and nearly every day. Her mother's reproaches were
of no more avail than Jupiter's furious looks, and when the latter one
day asked for an explanation as to _certain visits_, the girl said
proudly:

"That is very soon explained. He loves me as I love him, and I presume
you can guess the rest."

And he certainly did guess the rest, and disappeared, and with him the
shower of gold ceased.

The mother cried and the daughter laughed. "I never gave the worn out
old rake any hopes, and what does it matter to me, what bargain you made
with him? I always thought that you had been lucky on the Stock
Exchange. Now, however, we must seriously consider about giving up our
apartments, and make up our minds to live as we did before."

"Are you really capable of making such a sacrifice for me, to renounce
luxury and to have my poverty?" her lover said.

"Certainly I am! Is not that a matter of course when one loves?" the
ballet girl replied