"We meet where harp and violin Were singing songs of mirth, Where creatures floated in the space Almost too fair for earth. He moved amid the surging crowd, And by one single glance My heart was lost, forever lost, While swinging in the dance." Oh, how Geraldine enjoyed the first two hours of the ball! It was one of the most brilliant affairs ever given in Newburgh. The dazzling lights shone on an animated scene, adorned with rich floral garnitures, and brightened by the rich uniforms of the firemen, mixed with the sober black of the ordinary citizen, and the gay gowns of the beautiful women. Geraldine, with her golden fluff of hair, bright brown eyes, and shining white attire, was the cynosure of all eyes, and many a gallant fireman envied Harry Hawthorne, who was her partner so often in the joyous dance. True, she would dance with any of them to whom he introduced her, but each one saw by the wandering glances of her brown eyes that Hawthorne was first in her heart and thoughts. So the first two hours passed by like a dream of bliss. Geraldine loved music and dancing and gayety, with all her heart. She loved, too, the congenial new friends she had made, and lost in the delightful present, she forgot for a time her feverish ambition to become an actress and shine upon the stage. What exquisite rapture may be crowded into two hours--rapture that will linger in the memory till death blots out all. So it was with Geraldine. When Hawthorne pressed her hand in the dance, and looked into her eyes, drinking in deep draughts the intoxication of her beauty and sweetness, the girl thrilled with a rapture akin to pain, and those moments of dizzy, subtle bliss so dazzling in their brightness, returned to Geraldine through all her life as her happiest hours--that hour in a woman's life when First Love "is a shy, sweet new-comer, and Hope leads it by the hand." "New hopes may bloom, and days may come, Of milder, calmer beam; But there's nothing half so sweet in life As love's young dream." How sad that a shadow should fall so suddenly over Geraldine's happiness! But as she stood at a window, panting from the dance, rosy and smiling, as she talked to Harry Hawthorne, a shadow suddenly came between her and the light, pausing by her side till she looked up and saw--Clifford Standish! Alas! that his shadow should ever come between her and the dawning happiness of her life! Alas! that she had ever met him, the handsome, unscrupulous actor, who stood there scowling at his splendid rival! "Mr. Standish!" she exclaimed, with a violent start, and a strange feeling of annoyance, and he answered, impressively: "How glad I am that I have found you at last!" "Have you been looking for me?" she asked, coldly.