Cruel As The Grave

For only this night, as they whispered, I brought

My own eyes to bear on her so, that I thought,

Could I keep them one half-minute fixed--she would fall

Shrivelled!--She fell not; yes, this does it all.--BROWNING As the circle revolved before them, Sybil saw no one but Lyon Berners

and Rosa Blondelle, and these she saw always--with her eyes, when they

were before them; with her spirit, when they had revolved away from

them. She saw him hold close to his heart the arm that leaned on his

arm; she saw him press her hand, and play with her fingers, and look

love in the glances of his eyes, and speak love in the tones of his

voice, although no word of love had been uttered as yet.

At last--oh! deliverance from torture!--the music ceased, the

promenaders dispersed to their seats.

The relief was but short! The band soon struck up a popular quadrille,

and the gentlemen again selected their partners and formed sets. Lyon

Berners, who had conducted his fair companion to a distant seat, now led

her forth again, and stood with her at the head of one of the sets.

"There! you see! they are lovers! I wonder who he is?" whispered

Death, leaning to Sybil's ear.

Sybil bit her lip and answered nothing.

"Ah! you do not know, or will not tell! Well, will you honor me with

your hand in this quadrille?" requested the stranger, with a bow.

Scarcely knowing what she did, for her eyes and thoughts were still

following her husband and her rival, Sybil bowed assent, and arose from

her seat.

Death took her hand and led her up to the same quadrille, at the head

of which Harold the Saxon and Edith the Fair stood, and he placed

himself and his partner exactly opposite to, and facing them.

Thus Lyon Berners for the first time in the evening was obliged to see

his wife, for of course he knew her by her dress, as she knew him by his

dress. She saw him stoop and whisper to his partner, and she surmised

that he gave her a hint as to who was their vis-a-vis, and gave it as

a warning. She fancied here that her confidence had been betrayed in

small matters as well as in great, and even in this very small item of

divulging the secret of her costume to her rival. And at that moment she

took a resolution, which later in the evening she carried out. Now,

however, from behind her golden mask she continued to watch her husband

and her rival. She noticed, that from the instant her husband had

observed his wife's presence, he modified his manner towards his

partner, until there seemed nothing but indifference in it.