"I bide my time," Felise said to her mother one day when they were discussing the Carlyles. "I am giving her a little taste of the world's pleasures. I want her to fall in love with this life she is leading here. She will be tempted by its enticements and forget her coldness and prudishness. Then I shall strike." "She is very circumspect," said Mrs. Arnold. "They say she is a model of virtue and beautiful wifely obedience." "The higher she soars now the lower her fall shall be!" exclaimed the relentless girl, with her low, reckless laugh, "mother, I shall not fail of my revenge!" Ah! Felise Herbert! The coils of fate are tightening around you like a deadly serpent while you exult in your wickedness. CHAPTER XXVI. The gay, pleasure-loving Parisians were on the _qui vive_ for Mrs. Carlyle's masquerade ball, for it was everywhere conceded that her entertainments were the most _recherche_ and delightful in the whole city. Colonel Carlyle spared neither pains nor expense to render them so. In his laudable desire to further Bonnibel's happiness, the colonel lavished gold like water. He knew no other path to success than this. He wanted to win her regard, if possible, and his experience in society had disposed him to believe that the most potent "open sesame" to a woman's heart was wealth and power. How far the colonel's convictions were true, or how ably he might have succeeded in the darling wish of his heart, had things gone well, we shall never know, for the frail superstructure of his happiness, builded on the sand, was destined to be thrown down and shattered into fragments by the wild winds of fate, that should converge into storms on that fatal night to which so many looked forward with pleasure. And yet not the faintest presentiment of evil came to him that day to whisper of the gathering clouds of destiny. He knew not that his "house of cards" tottered on its foundation, that the wreck and ruin of his dearest hope was about to be consummated. He knew not, or he might have exclaimed with the poet: "Of all that life can teach us, There's naught so true as this; The winds of fate blow ever, But ever blow amiss!" * * * * * The brief winter day came at length, gloomy and overcast, with clouded sky that overflowed with a wild, tempestuous rain, as though "The heart of Heaven was breaking In tears o'er the fallen earth." At night the storm passed over, the bright stars shone through the misty veil of darkness, a lovely silver moon hung its crescent in the sky. All things seemed propitious for the hour that was "big with fate" to the lovely girl whose changing fortunes we have followed to the turning point of her life. Cold, and dark, and gloomy though it seemed outside, all was light, and warmth, and summer in the splendid chateau. Hot-house flowers bloomed everywhere in the most lavish profusion. The air was heavy with their fragrance.