Is not that very romantic?' she asked, as her story came to its close.

'Very romantic indeed,' replied Charles. And the tone of his laugh -sad, angry, revengeful-assured her that at last her work was done. The victory so long watched and struggled for was hers.

Erle's inopportune departure had inflicted no real injury upon the play. Actors and actresses alike were perfect with their parts. Everything had been beautifully arranged. Lord Scamperley, as Dogberry, discovered a vein of low comic talent which took his best friends by surprise. Slap made a most sententious Verges, and Anstruther's disguise as the Friar, was so complete, that it was not till he took his wig and beard off that Nelly was convinced of his identity. The library was turned into a green-room; and a party of fiddlers, stowed away in an alcove, whiled away the half-hour during which a crowded audience was duly marshalled into place. At last every seat was full; a knock was heard from behind the scenes, the band stopped in mid career, the curtain rose, and Beatrice-glowing, beautiful, and untamed, her hair swept proudly back, and her tall neck rising majestically out of a monster ruff, her mother's diamonds glittering in dazzling profusion about her, and rouge and powder adding lustre to the whole-rustled in a fine brocade across the stage.

There was a murmur of admiration, a hush of suspense, and even the severest critics admitted that her appearance, though unclassical, was effective. Already she had had a little triumph among her fellowperformers. I stoop to conquer,' she had said, giving a tip of her finger to Charles, whose looks assured her that her mirror had told her nothing but the truth.

'Not to conquer me, thank goodness,' Erle thought to himself, as turning away he looked through the curtain's peep-hole and watched Margaret and the Squire taking their place among the spectators. Meantime Florence, conscious of loveliness, and assured of her own triumph, was really good-natured about her companions' success, and

cheered Nelly, already faltering and apprehensive, with kind looks and speeches.

'Frightened?' she said. 'You dear little pet, there will be plenty of Claudios, I can tell you, before the evening is over; it makes me cry to see you act; think of me and be brave.'

The first dialogue convinced everybody that two performers at least had chosen their parts sagaciously.

'What, my dear Lady Disdain,' cried Benedick, 'are you still living?'

Is it possible,' Beatrice answers, 'that Disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed on as Signor Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert into disdain if you come into her presence.'

Florence tossed her head, gave her fan the most contemptuous flutter, and the audience burst out laughing at her companion's discomfiture. Erle, however, who had arrayed himself with foppish splendour in satin and velvet, and wore his sword with perfect grace, was not in the least disposed to be abashed.

Then,' he answered gaily, 'is Courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted, and I would Í could find it in my head I have not a hard heart, for truly I love none.'

'A dear happiness to women,' rejoined the lady; they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood I am of your humour for that. I had rather hear my dog bark than hear a man swear he loves me.'

'God keep your ladyship in that mind!' said Erle, 'so some gentleman or other shall scape a predestinate scratched face.'

Here came another burst of applause, and presently Margaret started as her cousin appeared and acquitted himself feelingly of Claudio's amorous confession

O my lord, When you went onward on this ended action, I looked upon her with a soldier's eye, That liked, but had a rougher task in hand Than to drive liking to the name of love.

But now I am returned, and that war thoughts

Have left their places vacant, in their rooms
Come thronging soft and delicate desires
All prompting me how fair young Hero is.

Fair indeed! When the third act arrived, and Nelly, in the simplest white and with no ornament but the colour that now dyed her cheeks, now left them ashy white, got tremulously through her pretty lines, the enthusiasm of the audience reached its highest point.

Sir Agricola grinned across the room at Lady Dangerfield, as, hardly conscious of its appropriateness, Hero described her friend

O God of love! I know he doth deserve
As much as may be yielded to a man;
But nature never framed a woman's heart
Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice.
Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
Misprizing what they look on, and her wit
Values itself so highly, that to her

All matters else seem weak. She cannot love,

Nor take no shape nor project of affection, She is so self-endeared.

'La plus belle des parures,' says the French proverb, c'est l'espoir d'être aimée.' Was it this that made Nelly's eye sparkle and her cheek glow with a prettier flush than usual, and that tinged her manner with the most becoming animation? Malagrida, at any rate, let a burst of admiration break from his lips, and being professedly a patron of youth, beauty, and innocence, declared himself completely overcome.

Pocket-handkerchiefs were in sudden request, and the Squire felt his breath coming short and hard, when the marriage scene brought affairs to a crisis, and Nelly, with her hair dishevelled, and her bridal wreath torn off, lay-fair, innocent and lifeless-across the stage. It was now that Anstruther, in a brown frieze coat, sandals, and a pilgrim's crook, at once relieved his feelings as a man, and established his reputation as an actor. 'I have marked,' he cried,

A thousand blushing apparitions start
Into her face a thousand innocent shames
In angel whiteness bear away those blushes;
And in her eye there hath appear'd a fire
To burn the error that these princes hold
Against her maiden truth.

'And all,' whispered Mrs. Vivien, 'because the poor child's maid carried on a flirtation from her window.'

'The moral of it,' said Sir Agricola, 'should be " No followers allowed," a doctrine I insist upon with all my people.'

'At any rate,' suggested his neighbour, not above the area railings.' And then the curtain fell.

The scenes were being altered for the afterpiece. The actors had gone away to relapse into conventional attire; and Nelly, first down of any one, found herself for a minute in the library alone. She was yet thinking over her part, when Charles came in with a courageous, halfembarrassed air, took her hand with respectful tenderness, yet as its rightful owner, whispered something into her ear which made her eye glisten and an exclamation of surprise start to her lips, and was prepared, apparently, to refute all expostulation with the oldest, pleasantest, and least answerable argument which logicians have hitherto introduced to the notice of mankind.

'I must quote Beatrice's last speech to you,' he said; "Peace, I will stop your mouth with a

At this moment the door opened: Florence and Malagrida bustled in, engrossed in the final arrangements for the farce. Florence perceived in an instant what was happening, and pretending, with great presence of mind, to have seen nothing, made an excuse to withdraw her companion from the door.

Malagrida looked blankly at her for an explanation. 'Dear me,' he cried, 'what in the world is the matter?'

'Nothing,' Florence answered; 'only a new scene extemporized in Much ado about Nothing.'

VOL. LXVIII. NO. CCCCLII.