We found the opera-house crowded. Our seats were near the stage. John sat behind us, so that he might slip out into the lobby occasionally; for the opera was a bore to him. The second act was over; John had left his seat; I was opening and shutting my fan mechanically, half lost in thought, when Leonora, who had been looking at the house with her lorgnette, turned and said,-- "Is not that your friend of this morning, on the other side, in the second row, leaning against the third pillar? There is a queenish-looking old lady with him. He hasn't spoken to her for a long time, and she continually looks up at him." I took her glass, and discovered Redmond. He looked back at me through another; I made a slight motion with my handkerchief; he dropped his glass into the lap of the lady next him and darted out, and in a moment he was behind me in John's seat. "Who is with you?" he asked. "Brother," I answered. "You intoxicate me with some strange perfume; don't fan it this way." I quietly passed the fan to Leonora, who now looked back and spoke to him. He talked with her a moment, and then she discreetly resumed her lorgnette. "What happened for two years after I left B.? The last year I know something of." "Breakfast, dinner, and tea; the ebb and flow of the tide; and the days of the week." "Nothing more?" And his voice came nearer. "A few trifles." "They are under lock and key, I suppose?" "We do not carry relics about with us." "There is the conductor; I must go. Turn your face toward me more." I obeyed him, and our eyes met. His searching gaze made me shiver. "I have been married," he said, and his eyes were unflinching, "and my wife is dead." All the lights went down, I thought; I struck out my arm to find Leonora, who caught it and pressed it down. "I must get out," I said; and I walked up the alley to the door without stumbling. I knew that I was fainting or dying; as I had never fainted, I did not know which. Redmond carried me through the cloak-room and put me on a sofa. "I never can speak to him again," I thought, and then I lost sight of them all. A terribly sharp pain through my heart roused me, and I was in a violent chill. They had thrown water over my face; my hair was matted, and the water was dripping from it on my naked shoulders. The gloves had been ripped from my hands, and Leonora was wringing my handkerchief. "The heat made you faint, dear," she said. John was walking up and down the room with a phlegmatic countenance, but he was fuming. "My new dress is ruined, John," I said. "Hang the dress! How do you feel now?" "It is drowned; and I feel better; shall we go home?" He went out to order the carriage, and Leonora whispered to me that she had forgotten Redmond's name. "No matter," I answered. I could not have spoken it then.