, without grief or pain! So
that strange and many-sided life--with its guilt and its misery, its
fitful flashes of poetry and humor, its fantastic gayety, cruelty, and
vanity--ran its destined course, and faded out like a dream!

Alas for Ariel! She had lived for the Master--what more could she do,
now the Master was gone? She could die for him.

They had mercifully allowed her to attend the funeral of Miserrimus
Dexter--in the hope that the ceremony might avail to convince her of his
death. The anticipation was not realized; she still persisted in denying
that "the Master" had left her. They were obliged to restrain the poor
creature by force when the coffin was lowered into the grave; and they
could only remove her from the cemetery by the same means when the
burial-service was over. From that time her life alternated, for a
few weeks, between fits of raving delirium and intervals of lethargic
repose. At the annual ball given in the asylum, when the strict
superintendence of the patients was in some degree relaxed, the alarm
was raised, a little before midnight, that Ariel was missing. The nurse
in charge had left her asleep, and had yielded to the temptation of
going downstairs to look at the dancing. When the woman returned to
her post, Ariel was gone. The presence of strangers, and the confusion
incidental to the festival, offered her facilities for escaping which
would not have presented themselves at any other time. That night the
search for her proved to be useless. The next morning brought with it
the last touching and terrible tidings of her. She had strayed back to
the burial-ground; and she had been found toward sunrise, dead of cold
and exposure, on Miserrimus Dexter's grave. Faithful to the last, Ariel
had followed the Master! Faithful to the last, Ariel had died on the
Master's grave!

Having written these sad words, I turn willingly to a less painful
theme.

Events had separated me from Major Fitz-David, after the date of
the dinner-party which had witnessed my memorable meeting with Lady
Clarinda. From that time I heard little or nothing of the Major; and
I am ashamed to say I had almost entirely forgotten him--when I
was reminded of the modern Don Juan by the amazing appearance of
wedding-cards, addressed to me at my mother-in-law's house! The Major
had settled in life at last. And, more wonderful still, the Major had
chosen as the lawful ruler of his household and himself--"the future
Queen of So