reamed loudly. Two adorers stood before her, alike
in every lineament and every detail of costume, utterly
indistinguishable, even by the eye of Love.

Lucifer, in fact, hastening to throw himself at Adeliza's feet and
pray her to defer his bliss no longer, had been thunderstruck by the
tidings of her elopement with Belial. Fearing to lose his wife and his
dominions along with his sweetheart, he had sped to the nether regions
with such expedition that he had had no time to change his costume.
Hence the equivocation which confounded Adeliza, but at the same time
preserved her from being torn to pieces by the no less mystified Madam
Lucifer.

Perceiving the state of the case, Lucifer with true gentlemanly
feeling resumed his proper semblance, and Madam Lucifer's talons were
immediately inserted into his whiskers.

"My dear! my love!" he gasped, as audibly as she would let him, "is
this the way it welcomes its own Lucy-pucy?"

"Who is that person?" demanded Madam Lucifer.

"I don't know her," screamed the wretched Lucifer. "I never saw her
before. Take her away; shut her up in the deepest dungeon!"

"Not if I know it," sharply replied Madam Lucifer. "You can't bear to
part with her, can't you? You would intrigue with her under my nose,
would you? Take that! and that! Turn them both out, I say! turn them
both out!"

"Certainly, my dearest love, most certainly," responded Lucifer.

"Oh, Sire," cried Moloch and Beelzebub together, "for Heaven's sake
let your Majesty consider what he is doing. The Inspector--"

"Bother the Inspector!" screeched Lucifer. "D'ye think I'm not a
thousand times more afraid of your mistress than of all the saints in
the calendar? There," addressing Adeliza and her betrothed, "be off!
You'll find all debts paid, and a nice balance at the bank. Out! Run!"

They did not wait to be told twice. Earth yawned. The gates of
Tartarus stood wide. They found themselves on the side of a steep
mountain, down which they scoured madly, hand linked in hand. But fast
as they ran, it was long ere they ceased to hear the tongue of Madam
Lucifer.

LUCIFER[28]

BY ANATOLE FRANCE

[28] Taken by permission from _The Well of St. Claire_, by
Anatole France, translated by Alfred Allinson. Published,
1909, by John Lane Co., New York.

_E si compiacque tanto Spinello di farlo orribile e
contrafatto, che si dice (tanto puo alcuna fiata
l'immaginazione) che la detta figura da