lot.

_Madeline._ Yes, but you _must_ though. Why this is nothing. I have
plotted a hundred things in the course of my life, and so I shall again.
Well, now hear the whole. I will slip in the back-way, and you must be
alone in your room ready to receive me. After we have put on our
disguises, we will go down stairs very softly and steal out at the alley
gate. Then we will make the best of our way to the theatre, and go in
at the gallery-door, passing, of course as two servant-girls. When we
have reached the gallery we will mix with the crowd, and sit at our ease
and enjoy the play; at least the masquerade-scene, which I would not
miss for the world. I am absolutely dying to see the French dancers.
Nobody can possibly discover us under our disguises. We will not go till
the first act is over, and the audience settled; and we will come away
before the last scene of the comedy. Then after we get home we will
resume our proper dresses, and present ourselves to our parents, looking
as demure as if we had been sitting by the fire, and talking sensibly,
all the evening. No one will ever know what we have really been doing.
It will be a most charming frolic, and something for you and I to laugh
about, ten years hence. I always enjoy these queer exploits that no one
else has courage to undertake.

_Juliet_ (_firmly._) Madeline, I will _not_ disguise myself like a
servant-girl; and I will _never_ accompany you secretly to the theatre,
nor to any other place.

Juliet spoke in so firm a tone, that Madeline was at first abashed, and
remained for a few moments silent. But, not easily repelled, she soon
recovered from her confusion, and exerted all her eloquence to prevail
on her dear friend, as she called her, to join in the scheme. By turns
she flattered, caressed, and ridiculed her, and then tried to win her
consent by representing the delights of the masquerade-scene, as she had
heard it described by a lady who had recently seen the comedy of the
Belle's Stratagem. Juliet held out steadily for a long time. But at
length her firmness gave way, and she finally yielded; as Madeline had
foreseen. Her reluctance was so great, that her consent was, after all,
rather extorted than given, and Madeline, having kissed her rather
oftener than usual, ran gayly to her own home, singing "I won't be a
nun."

After Madeline had gone, Juliet felt so uneasy at having suffered
herself to be persuaded against her conscience, that she was on the