hing! They were, like
children playing with deadly poisons, with edge tools, or with fire,
ignorant of the fatal toys they handled.

And, moreover they meant nothing. Theirs was the shallowest pretence of
love that ever went by the name of a flirtation. On the woman's side, it
was but a love of admiration and an affectation of sentiment. On the
man's side, it was pity and gratified self-love. So little did Rosa
Blondelle really care for Lyon Berners, and so truly did she estimate
the value of her very luxurious home at Black Hall, that had she known
the state of Sybil's mind, she would very quickly have put an end to her
flirtation with the husband, and done all that she could to recover the
confidence of the wife, and then--looked out among the attractive young
men of the neighborhood for another party to that sentimental,
meaningless love-making, which was yet a necessity to her shallow life.

And as for Mr. Berners, had he dreamed of the real depth of anguish this
trifling with the blonde beauty caused his true-hearted wife, he would
have been the first to propose the immediate departure of their guest.

Had Sybil been frank with either or both the offenders, much misery
might have been saved. But the young wife, wounded to the quick in her
pride and in her love, hid her sufferings and kept her secret.

And thus the three drifted towards the awful brink of ruin.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE FIRST FATAL HALLOW EVE.

AMBROSE--Where be these maskers, fool?
COLLIN--Everywhere, sage! But chiefly there
Where least they seem to mask!
JONSON--THE CARNIVAL.

It was All-Hallow Eve, a night long anticipated with delight by the
whole neighborhood, and much longer still remembered with horror by the
whole country.

It was the occasion of Sybil Berners' mask ball; and Black Hall, the
Black Valley, and the town of Blackville were all in a state of
unprecedented excitement; for this was the first entertainment of the
kind that had ever been given in the locality, and the gentry of three
contiguous counties had been invited to assist at it.

Far distant from large cities and professional costumers as the rural
belles and beaux of the neighborhood were, you will wonder what they did
for fancy dresses.

They did very well. They ransacked the old cedar chests of their
great-grandparents, and exhumed t