Mrs. Knight dressed herself for her part, as she was to appear in the early scene in the play, and then gave the use of her toilet nook to Zuleime. But the cold walk through the evening air, and the standing in the chilly dressing-room, had so increased her cough, that Mrs. Knight went out and sent a call-boy for opium, and administered a dose. It was under the influence of that stupefier that Zuleime, leaning on the arm of Mrs. Knight, entered that terra-incognita, the green-room. It was a long room, papered, curtained, carpeted, furnished with sofas and easy-chairs, and warmed by a fine coal fire—upon the whole it differed in no other respect than its motley crowd, from a large family parlor. Mrs. Knight conducted her to a corner of the sofa nearest the fire, and leaving her sitting there, obeyed the call-boy’s summons, and went upon the stage. Composed into a dreamy state by the opium, Zuleime sat there while the strange scene, with its fantastical crowd, passed before her like the phantasmagoria of a midnight dream. And all this time Frank sat in the centre box of the front row, not seeing the play enacting before him—not thinking of it, only seeing the turnpike road to L——. Only thinking of the dearest girl in the world, whom he should meet at the end of his journey. Paper walls again! Zuleime remained in the corner of the sofa near the fire in the green-room, not thinking at all, not even dreaming, only conscious in a vague dreamy way, that a strange vision, changing and changing like figures in the kaleidoscope, was passing before her. She was scarcely aroused by Mrs. Knight’s gentle voice, saying in her ear— “Come, my dear, it is time for you to go on now. Come, don’t be afraid. Bless you, you are nobody, you know. No one will look at you. You will be only one of a group that forms a sort of back-ground to the scene. Come, I will go with you to the side entrance, where the others stand.” Zuleime obeyed mechanically, and was led, between various walls of canvas, to a side entrance, at which were grouped a number of persons in villagers’ costume. “There, just go on with the crowd, and stand there, that is all you have to do,” whispered Mrs. Knight, as she left her.