w victims for his
eloquence, and buttonholed now one person and now another. This
intellectual exertion exhausted him all the less from the fact that he
consumed an incredible quantity of the refreshments which were handed
about. After having emptied a whole basket of cakes, he devoted himself
persistently to the ices, and, finally, when, toward midnight, the
champagne was brought in, he seized a whole bottle out of the waiter's
hands and placed it with his glass in a little niche behind a pillar.
As he did so the countess honored him with a cold, almost contemptuous
glance, and her lips curled slightly. The expression enhanced the
beauty of her face exceedingly. Then, too, the dim light that now
prevailed in the room lent her a strange charm. She looked very much
younger, and her eyes flashed sparks that were still capable of
kindling fire. Stephanopulos devoured her with his eyes, and was
continually seeking a chance to approach her. But she always passed
without noticing him; nor did she sit down by Jansen again. It was easy
to see that her mind was fixed upon something which took her thoughts
away from all that was going on about her.

As it struck midnight, it so chanced that there was a momentary hush in
the conversation. The aesthetical professor advanced into the middle of
the _salon_, holding a full glass in his hand, and said:

"Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to propose a toast to our honored
mistress, in whose name we are here assembled. I do not mean by this
the gracious lady, so sincerely honored by us all, whose guests we are.
I have praised her too often not to be willing to resign, for once, to
her younger guests this privilege of an old friend. My toast is offered
to a mistress even greater than she--to the sublime art of Music, the
art of arts, whose supremacy is becoming more and more acknowledged and
exalted, without envy by her sisters. May she, the mightiest of all
the powers which move the world--thrice glorious and thrice holy
Music--live, flourish, and prevail to the end of time!"

Enthusiastic applause followed these words, but even the clinking of
the glasses, and the shouts of the different voices, were drowned by a
loud flourish which a young musician improvised upon the piano. The
professor, who had emptied his bumper at a draught and instantly filled
it again, now stepped, with a complacent smile, into the cabinet where
Jansen sat, thoughtfully holding his half-filled glass, from which h