At that name, linked with the events of the previous night, and with the somber memories of other years, Nameless started, and an ejaculation escaped his lips. "Israel Yorke! and in this place?" "Yes,--and why not?" responded Frank, bitterly. "What place so fitting for the swindler,--pardon me, _Financier_? Is it not well that the money which by day is wrung from the hard earnings of the poor, should be spent at night in debauchery and pollution?" "_From_ the bank _to_ the brothel," thought Nameless, but he did not breathe that thought aloud. Frank silently took him by the hand, and lifted her vail. There was a magic in the pressure and the look. Holding the vail in such a manner that he might gaze freely upon her countenance, while it was hidden from all other eyes, she looked at him long and steadfastly. "Do you regret your pledge?" she said, measuring every word. "Regret!" he echoed,--for the touch, the look, the voluptuous atmosphere of her very presence, made him forget the past, the prospects of the future,--everything, but the woman whose soul shone upon him from her passionate eyes:--"Can you think it? Regret! Never!" "Then this is my last night in the Temple. O, my heart, my soul is sick of scenes like these!" She glanced around the hall, crowded by the maskers,--"_To-morrow_,--" bending gently to him, until he felt her breath upon his cheek, "to-morrow,--" "_To-morrow_!" echoed a strange voice; "but, my lady, I have a word to say to you _to-night_." They turned with the same impulse, and beheld the unbidden speaker, in the form of a Spanish hidalgo, dressed in black velvet, richly embroidered with gold. He held his mask before his face, and a group of dark plumes shaded his brow. She started at the voice, and Nameless felt her hand tremble in his own. "In a moment I will join you again," she whispered to Nameless; "now, Count, I am at your service." And leaving Nameless by the pillar, she took the Count by the arm, and with him disappeared in the shadows of the hall. Leaning against the pillar, and folding his arms across his breast,--over the white cross which glittered there,--Nameless awaited her return with evident anxiety. He was devoured by contending emotions. The fascination with which this beautiful woman had enveloped him,--suspicion of the stranger who had called her from his side,--the strange and varied scene before him,--these occupied him by turns; and then, even amid the excitement and fascination of the present, some faces of the past looked vividly in upon his soul! And while a scene is transpiring between Frank and the Count, which will hereafter have a strong influence upon the fate of Nameless, let us, for an instant, stand with him by the central pillar, and gaze upon the mysterious ball.