* Now,' said my companion, * is the time to go. Step lightly,
for the least sound will waken him at this hour.'

As we turned from his apartment, my friend moved a little
slide before a pane of glass in the door of the opposite room, and
bade me look in. A lady was sitting at the window, gazing out-
ward, with a vacant eye, and kissing her hand at the airy nothmgs
of her mind. The noise of the sliding panel attracted her no-
tice. She glanced toward the door. The moment my face was
recognised, she sprang toward me. ' Ob, Henry,' she said, ^are
you come ? How long I have waited for you ! Mo, no,' she



THE DUBLIST. 8?]L

addedy pushing her fair hair wildly back from her brow, ' yon
are not Henry — no ; if you were, you would speak to roe !'

I could not speak to her. I was overpowered, bewildered*
She was a beautiful being, seemingly not twenty years of ag9.
The ravages of sorrow had thinned her features, and saddened
her brow ; but her lips were still feverishly full and red ; her blue
eye, still bright ; the hues of fading loveliness, like the reflected
tints of a damask rose, still lingered in her cheek ; and her voice !
oh, how sweet and musical, did its gentle accents fall upon my
ear ! Every word bespoke the stainless purity of the spirit tb9(
fate had steeped in ruin.
