central object the gaze of everyone in the audience was drawn and fixed. The music now grew wilder and sharper, the violins began to scream, the ’cellos to swear, and Sound itself, torn into shreds of impatient vibration, was beginning to protest discordantly at the whole representation, when lo!—the golden cocoon grew slowly more and more transparent, as if some invisible hand were winding off the silken treasure of the spinning, and the white form of a woman was dimly, delicately seen through the half-opaque covering. Loud murmurs of applause began, which swelled into a rapturous roar of ecstasy as with a sudden, sharp noise, which was echoed and repeated in the orchestra, the cocoon split asunder, and La Marina bounded forward to the footlights. Clad in diaphanous drapery, which scarcely concealed her form, and spreading forth two white butterfly wings, illumined in some mysterious way by electricity, she commenced her gliding dance—an intricate whirl of wonderful sinuous movements, every one of which might have served as a study for a sculptor. Her feet moved flyingly without sound; her face, artistically tinted for stage-effect, was beautiful; her hair of reddish-brown, lit weirdly by concealed electric dewdrops, flowed about her in a cloud that resembled a smouldering fire; and as she danced, she smiled as sweetly and with as perfect an imitation of childlike innocence as though she had in very truth been newly born in fairyland that night, just as she seemed,—a creature of light, love and mirth, with no idea at all of the brandy awaiting her by her own order in her dressing-room off the ‘wings.’ And Delicia, frozen into a kind of unnatural calm, watched her steadily, coldly, critically; and watching, realised that the Bond Street jeweller had not spoken without knowledge, for there, on Marina’s panting bosom, gleamed the diamond dove carrying the golden love-token, which said, ‘_Je t’adore ma mie!_’ Flashing brilliantly with every toss and whirl of the dancer’s pliant body, it was to Delicia the proof-positive of her husband’s dishonour. And yet she found it difficult to grasp the truth at once; she was not aware of any particular emotion of hurt, or rage, or grief; she only felt very cold and sick, and she could not put so strong a control on herself as to quite hide these physical sensations altogether, for Mrs Cavendish, glancing at her in alarm, exclaimed,— ‘Delicia, you are not well! Robert, she’s going to faint; take her out of the box! Give her some air!’ Delicia forced herself to smile—to speak. ‘It is nothing, I assure you,’ she said, ‘nothing but the heat and the smoke. Pray do not mind me; it will soon pass.’ But despite her words, she half rose and looked nervously about her as if seeking for some escape; then, refusing Mr Cavendish’s hastily-offered arm, she sat down again. ‘I will see this dance out,’ she said tremulously; ‘and then, perhaps, if you are ready, we will go.’