‘Well, I can’t say I was looking for you,’ returned Carlotta, ‘but I am glad that I have met you, nevertheless. But I should ask you where you have been wandering, you naughty man?’ ‘Oh, I have been to the theatre, and then walked this way with a friend,’ returned Blodget. ‘But where are you staying—can you take me home with you?’ ‘Fie!’ said Carlotta, playfully. ‘I really cannot part with you, my charmer,’ said Blodget. ‘If you cannot take me to your quarters, wherever they may be, you must come somewhere with me.’ ‘You must not think of going where my people are,’ observed the Chilean girl, ‘remember how near the detection of our amour was costing our lives.’ ‘Then come with me, my beauty,’ said Blodget. ‘There is a house not far from here which will suit our purpose, and I shall not part with you until daylight.’ ‘Then I go with you, Blodget,’ said Carlotta. ‘Promise me that you will not seek to detain me more than an hour, and I will not refuse you the happiness you covet.’ Blodget promised, and the Chilean girl accompanied him to an accommodation-house in the neighborhood, where they were conducted to a neatly furnished bedchamber on the first floor. ‘We shall have time to drink a bottle of champagne in the hour that you have promised to remain with me,’ observed Blodget, and he gave the girl, who had preceded them with a light, some silver to procure it. They sat down, and Blodget threw his arm round the waist of his dark-eyed companion, and drawing her towards him, impressed a kiss upon her lips. She smiled upon him, but her lips did not give back the kiss, and there was a glitter in her night dark eyes at the moment which was not the radiance which springs from happiness or love. Blodget, however, failed to detect anything unusual or peculiar in the expression of that glance. The wine was brought, and placed upon a small round table convenient to Blodget’s hand, and he filled the glasses, handing one to Carlotta and taking one himself. ‘The sparkling juice will bring back to your dark cheeks a glow that seems wanting there,’ said he, as he sat down the glasses and immediately refilled them. ‘Come, drink,’ he cried. ‘It will be the last time we’ll drink together.’ ‘Why, what the deuce makes you think so?’ said Blodget. ‘I don’t know,’ replied the girl, ‘but I have said it, and you’ll see if it don’t come to pass.’ ‘D—d nonsense,’ cried Blodget, laughing, and then he drew his companion on his knee, and kissed her repeatedly and eagerly. Carlotta was silent, but she reclined her dark cheek against her seducer’s, and quietly and adroitly drew from her pocket a little phial containing some liquid. Concealing the phial in her hand, she then threw her arm over Blodget’s shoulder, and noiselessly drawing the tiny cork, poured the contents of the phial into his glass. ‘Another glass of champagne, my glow-worm,’ said Blodget, ‘and the soft delights of love, the thrilling joys of warm and impassioned nature are ours.’