There was a sound of revelry by night. ... and bright The lamps shone o’er fair women and brave men; A thousand hearts beat happily, and when Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes looked love to eyes that spoke again, And all went merry as a marriage bell! But hush! hark! _—Byron._ The day of the ball arrived. People had been invited for twenty miles around. Apartments had been prepared for the guests who, coming from a distance, would be likely to remain all night. From an early hour in the afternoon carriages began to arrive, and the men-servants had enough to do in stabling the horses and putting away the vehicles; while the maid-servants were employed in showing the company to their dressing rooms, and attending upon them there. Magnus came early in the afternoon, in order to have a private conversation with Mrs. Garnet, to whom he intended to open his heart fully. He asked for her as soon as he arrived, and was immediately shown up into her bed chamber, into which both Alice and her daughter had been crowded by the incoming of their guests. As he entered, Alice came forward with a smile to meet him. Elsie started violently, colored brightly, and, ere anyone could prevent her, even if they had wished, flew from the room. As she flew by him, Magnus fixed one passionate reproachful look upon her, and said, in a hurried voice: “Fear nothing, Elsie! I will never trouble you.” Alice, still smiling, pointed him to a chair. He sat down, dropped his forehead upon his hands for a moment, sighed heavily, looked up, and opened his story. He told Alice that he had discovered, to his eternal sorrow, that Elsie did not love him, that though to resign her was like resigning his hope of heaven, yet every principle of justice and honor obliged him to do so; he concluded by asking her opinion as to the best manner of breaking this affair to General Garnet, so as to shield Elsie from his indignation. “And so you wish to give Elsie up?” “Wish!” and Magnus dropped his forehead into his palms with a groan that might have started all the house, had they been listening. Then, lifting his head up again, he said sternly, almost fiercely: “Listen! If Elsie loved me, not all the power of earth or of hell—or—God forgive me!—I had nearly said of heaven—should sever her from me! not you—not her father—not herself—if only she loved me! But she does not, and it is all over.” “And who told you she did not love you?” inquired Alice, smiling at his vehemence, and sighing as her thoughts flew back to the past, when she was resigned in spite of herself. “Who told you that Elsie did not return your love?” With a gesture of despair Magnus recounted all that had passed between himself and Elsie, and ended, as he had begun, with a groan, dropping his head upon his hands.