I drew near the vineyards: my heart beat thick, I could not see, but I was certain I heard the rustle of her dress, caught the perfume of her hair. All her sins vanished: how could I upbraid her, though she were three times over Sarah Briggs? Yes, she was coming; I _felt_ her near; an electric thrill rushed through me as soul met soul. I heard a murmured "Dearest, sweetest!" I felt the warm clasp of two arms, but--a cold row of undress waistcoat-buttons came against my face, and a voice I knew too well cried out, as I rebounded from him, impelled thereto by a not gentle kick,-- "The devil! get out! Who the deuce are you?" We both stopped for breath. At that minute up rose the silver moon, and in its tell-tale rays we glared on one another, I and Little Grand. That silence was sublime: the pause between Beethoven's andante allegro--the second before the Spanish bull rushes upon the torreador. "You little miserable wretch!" burst out Grand, slowly and terribly; "you little, mean, sneaking, spying, contemptible milksop! I should like to know what you mean by bringing out your ugly phiz at this hour, when you used to be afraid of stirring out for fear of nurse's bogies? And to dare to come lurking after me!" "After you, Mr. Grandison!" I repeated, with grandiloquence. "Really you put too much importance on your own movements. I came by appointment to meet the Marchioness St. Julian, whom, I presume, as you are well acquainted with her, you know in her real name of Sarah Briggs, and to----" "Sarah Briggs!--_you_ come by appointment?" stammered Little Grand. "Yes, sir; if you disbelieve my word of honor, I will condescend to show you my invitation." "You little ape!" swore Grand, coming back to his previous wrath; "it is a lie, a most abominable, unwarrantable lie! _I_ came by appointment, sir; you did no such thing. Look there!" And he flaunted before my eyes in the moonlight the fac-simile of my letter, verbatim copy, save that in his Cosmo was put in the stead of Augustus. "Look there!" said I, giving him mine. Little Grand snatched it, read it over once, twice, thrice, then drooped his head, with a burning color in his face, and was silent. The "knowing hand" was done! We were both of us uncommonly quiet for ten minutes, neither of us liked to be the first to give in. At last Little Grand looked up and held out his hand, no more nonsense about him now. "Simon, you and I have been two great fools; we can't chaff one another. She's a cursed actress, and--let's make it up, old boy."