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TOO TRUE-A STORY OF TO-DAY.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END.

MISS BULBOUS was favored with a clear starry night for her soirée dansante, which was a good thing in the country, where the invited have, some of them, to come quite a distance over unilluminated roads. The rooms were pretty well filled when the Camerons arrived.

"Where is Miss Milla?" asked the fair hostess, magnificent in pale yellow satin and pearls, with a trail like that of a comet, as Mrs. Cameron appeared before her.

"She is coming with the Grizzles, thank you. Their carriage was larger than ours, and they offered her a place."

man.

"I hope they'll not be late. I depend upon Mr. Dassel to direct the GerIf Mrs. Grizzle should take it into her head that it was aristocratic to come late, she would not appear before midnight. I never did see a woman so infatuated on the subject of style;" and Miss Bulbous curled her lips, giving a sly glance backward, to see if her train was properly displayed, as we may have observed a peacock do when handsomely perched on a suitable fence.

"If she knew that you expected Mr. Dassel to take a leading part, she would be here in due season, for she is very proud of him," said Mrs. Cameron, with a smile.

"He's a real baron, isn't he-not of the French barber kind?" queried their hostess. "They say he's splendidly accomplished."

"They can hardly exaggerate his accomplishments. He is one of those true gentlemen who have given up ease and rank for an idea of right."

"Oh, how nice! I should love to hear him expatiate on the subject! I should think you'd set your cap for him, Miss Cameron."

"It would be better for you to do that," was Elizabeth's quiet reply,

"since you have money enough for both."

What Miss Bulbous would have said to this is not known, as the tide of company was at its height, and the Camerons were drifted on beyond their hostess. Elizabeth glanced uneasily at every new arrival. She was dreading the advent of Sam Grizzle.

When she dressed, that evening, for the party, she stood long before her mirror, after the last possible touch had, apparently, been given to her toilette. Finally, she turned, and said to her mother, who had entered her chamber to ask if she were ready,

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"Are there any camelias in the conservatory, mamma? "There is one very fine blossom; I noticed it this afternoon."

"How would it look in my hair?" "I should like to see it there," answered Milla; "your hair is so dark,and the white flower would look well with your blue dress. Let Sabrina bring it."

"Shall I?" asked Lissa, again, of her mother.

"Of course, my dear, if you fancy it." Elizabeth sat down, with thoughtful eyes, while Sabrina brought the flower.

"Let me place it for you. You will not refuse to let me fasten it with this little brooch, sister? and, remember, it is a gift from me."

"I will wear the brooch to please you, Milla, for this occasion only.' Make it secure, for I should dislike to lose it."

Milla was dressed in white. She wore a pair of solitaire ear-rings, but had been dissuaded from the rest of the jewels, which Sabrina was to take special charge of during their absence.

"What's the matter with you, Sabrina?" asked Mrs. Cameron. "I know you've been crying. If you have any trouble, why do you not share it with

us? I should think we have been your friends long enough."

The old woman began to cry and sob.

"Don't worry yourself about her, mamma. I know what is the matter with her; it is nothing serious," said Milla, a little impatiently.

"I must know all about it if you are in trouble, to-morrow, nurse.”

"Yis, yis, to-morrow you know all about it, true 'nuff," muttered Sabrina, wiping her eyes.

"I wish the Grizzles would come for you before we leave, Milla. I do not like to go first."

"Oh, never mind that, mamma. There's Mr. Dassel now, coming to keep me company until they call. It cannot be many moments. I will take my cloak and bouquet, and go down to the parlor with you."

They all went down, the old nurse following, to fasten the door after they should be gone. Mr. Dassel was in the hall.

"Don't fear-I'll take good care of the little girl," he said, as Mrs. Cameron answered her husband's question, if she were ready. "Madame Grizzle promised to be here in less than ten minutes."

"Keep your cloak well about you; it will be chilly," called the mother, looking back through the vestibule, to where her darling stood, under the lamp in the hall, clinging to Mr. Dassel's arm, and watching her friends depart with a face the color of her dress.

"Yes, mother."

The carriage-door was closed, the horse started. Sabrina stood on the porch, looking after them.

"Milla was so pale, wife, I'm afraid this excitement is not good for her."

"She always changes color so easily. She may look like a rose by the time she arrives at Miss Bulbous'."

Now the first detachment had arrived, they looked vainly, for some time, for the second. Elizabeth supposed she had the camelia in her hair, and was not anxious for the moment when Sam Grizzle should enter the rooms, and fix his greedy eyes upon it. In walking

about she came opposite a mirror, in a small boudoir, nearly deserted. It was natural that she should glance at her image-that she should look for the fatal flower which she had chosen as the signet for a life-long bondage of soul and body. Why did she start and smile when she found the camelia gone? The blossom had dropped from her hair. Where she had lost it, she did not know, probably in getting out of the carriage.

"I prayed to God to decide for me," she murmured, "and He has done it."

"Miss Bulbous is getting quite out of patience," said her mother, finding Elizabeth in the corner where she had remained, watching the brilliant groups down the vista of handsome rooms, idly listening to the sweet music, but busily thinking over the temptations of the last few days, and rejoicing in her escape.

"Mother, I feel uneasy; it is strange they do not come."

"I do not see that we need to feel uneasy. What possible accident could have happened? Miss Bulbous will be obliged to choose another leader for the German, which is nothing so very serious."

By this time nearly every one expected had arrived. There was quite a crowd, considering that it was a country-neighborhood party almost entirely, the only exceptions being a dozen or two of young men from town, required as partners in the dance, and about to be useful, also, in keeping champagne corks flying during the approaching supper. Miss Bulbous selected one of these important members of modern society to the leadership, and the dancing began.

Elizabeth was asked to participate, and did not decline. She was glad to be thus engaged when Sam should arrive. She asked her mother to take the diamond brooch from her hair, and place it in the lace at her throat.

"I lost the camelia, mamma, and cannot replace it."

"Never mind, you are well enough without it."

Elizabeth enjoyed the dancing. The music was delicious, the evening cool, the space quite liberal allotted to the dancers; she felt her spirits rise as they had not done for weeks. She was standing, with her partner, near the head of the salon, awaiting their turn in the grand round, when she saw the longexpected party arrive and slip up the broad staircase, to divest themselves of their wrappings-or, rather, a part of it -for, while Mr. and Mrs. and Mr. Samuel Grizzle were there, they were unaccompanied by her sister and Mr. Dassel. A cold wind seemed to strike her from the opened door; she shivered to her heart's core; a sudden dimness came over the lamps; her partner addressed her, and she smiled mechanically, not knowing what he said; the music, so sweet, rising and falling in such lightly-palpitating beats of ecstacy, sounded afar off, as if her ears were filled with water. It did not sound like dance-music; it seemed to wail, "farewell! farewell!"

Yet Elizabeth could not tell what she dreaded. She longed to fly to the dressing-room, and ask Mrs. Grizzle why Milla had not come; but at that moment, her partner's hand touched hers; she was swept off in a throbbing wave of music-became a beautiful form and color in the shifting kaleidoscope of the dance. It was half an hour before she could release herself from its flying enchantments.

In the meantime Sam had come upon the scene, and was watching her from a distance, sadly aware that she wore no camelia, his heart swelling inside of his white silk vest, and aching dreadfully.

"Dang it, she's a regular flirt, or she wouldn't have kept me hanging by the gills all this time, and let me flounder back into the water at last. I didn't think it of her,-I didn't. Sho! what'll ma say? She'll be nigh about as disappointed as I am. She's made all her calculations, even to letting us have the blue-and-white front room, up-stairs, for our private setting-room. And now she's dancing away with White Glover, without a speck of regard for our feel

ings. I'm awful mad at her! I hope Glover will get her fond of him, and then give her the go-by. No, I don't, either; I can't bear to see any man near her. Oh, lordy, I don't see why she couldn't take a fancy to me. I never saw her look nicer than she does to-night. She's just the figure for them gored dresses and trains. You might as well put 'em on a barrel of prime beef as on ma. Oh, dear! I believe I'll go back home and go to-bed; I'm sick!"

"What's the matter, Mr. Grizzle ?” asked the soft voice of a witching little creature near at hand, who heard his unconscious groan.

"Thank you, Miss Jennie, I don't feel well this evening; I'm sorry I came out. I believe I'll go home."

Now Miss Jennie had noticed the forlorn look with which Sam had watched lovely Miss Cameron, and guessed at the nature of his disease; so she asked him, sympathetically,

"What is it, Mr. Grizzle? headache or heartache ?"

"Sho!" said Sam, "taint heartache, that I know of! I eat tapioca pudding for dinner, and it never agrees with me."

"Then you should not have been so weak as to eat it. Never yield to the temptation to take what disagrees with your constitution," and the merry eyes glanced over at Miss Cameron. "But what there can be in tapioca pudding to injure you, puzzles me. It would not harm a baby."

"May-be it wasn't that, Miss Jennie; it might have been the pickled tongue."

"I rather think it was, Mr. Grizzle. But I wouldn't go home, if I were you. You'll feel better by-and-by."

"If you say you'll dance with me when this everlasting German is over, I'll stay."

"Remain, then, by all means,”

"There's other girls who appreciate me, if she don't," thought Sam, somewhat appeased by the flattering attentions of the pretty one by his side; "perhaps when she sees what a favorite I am, she'll be sorry she didn't put that flower in her hair."

But Lissa was not thinking of the flower nor of Sam; she was longing to get away, and ask her mother or Mrs. Grizzle why Milla and Louis had not arrived. She would have been still more anxious had she heard what was said when Mrs. Grizzle finally appeared before her hostess, and was mildly chided for her delay.

"I like not to have come at all. I never was in such a fluster in my life before," panted the new arrival.

"I don't think we should have come away, as it was," added Mr. Grizzle, mysteriously. "It's dreadful to have so much money as never to have no peace of your life."

"What can you mean?" asked Miss Bulbous.

"Why, my dear Miss Bulbous, don't you see what a state I'm in-not fit to come to your party? I declare, I'm ashamed of my rig," seriously rejoined Mrs. Grizzle.

"What's the matter with it?" again questioned the hostess, scanning the round of point-lace on the head and the emerald-green velvet about the form of her visitor with a puzzled look.

"Why, my diamonds, my dear! Don't you miss my diamonds! "

"You don't mean to tell me-"

left them in her hands. Those kind of girls are so apt to be dishonest."

Mrs. Grizzle colored a little as she replied,

"I've known Miss Bayles from a child. I can't believe she took 'em. Perhaps they're mislaid. I still hope it will turn out so; and if I lay hands on 'em again, I shall be more careful."

"What is it?" asked Mrs. Cameron, who had just become aware of their entrance, and had come forward to take Milla under her charge.

"My diamonds are gone. That's what delayed us so."

"Is it possible!" said Mrs. Cameron. "Then the robber must have entered your premises after all."

"I'd forgot all about that occurrence over to your house," exclaimed Mr. Grizzle. "Well, Malvina, you may give up the whole thing as a dead loss. That burglar's got 'em, sure enough!"

Mrs. Grizzle sank into a chair, quite faint at the probability.

"Come here, Cameron," called the pork-merchant, across the room. "That burglar did purty well, after all. He's got wife's diamonds."

For a few moments there was an animated discussion of the loss. Both Mr. Cameron and Mr. Grizzle thought the

"They're gone, sure! I can't find robbery had been effected in the daytime, probably when a part of the fami

them-"

"Can't find hide nor hair of 'em!" ly were at church-perhaps by the conejaculated Grizzle, père.

"I spent two whole hours, lookin', and that's what's kept us so late."

"Stolen?"

"I'm afraid so. Yes, I'm almost certain. Still, they may turn up yet. You see, I had 'em out Saturday, for Miss Bayles to paint; and she and Susie put them back in my bureau-drawer, and locked 'em up. Susie is sure of it. I oughtn't to have left it for them, that's so! Grizzle was going to have a safe brought home this week,-we've talked about it, ever since we got the silver-set and them diamonds. But I didn't really think any body would take 'em."

"Who's Miss Bayles-that artist you had there? It's probable she has taken them. I'm surprised you should have

nivance of some dishonest servant.

"But where is Milla?" her mother at length inquired; "is she waiting for me to bring her down?" thinking the young girl, in her morbid fear of strangers, was lingering in the dressingroom for her mother's escort.

"Milla? Why, she and Mr. Dassel came with you, didn't they?"

"Not at all. We understood that you were to bring them in your carriage. We left them awaiting you, two hours ago."

Mrs. Cameron was chagrined at this awkward misunderstanding, by which the couple had been cheated out of their evening's entertainment. It must have been dull, sitting and waiting, only to be disappointed at last,—and

Elizabeth enjoyed the dancing. The music was delicious, the evening cool, the space quite liberal allotted to the dancers; she felt her spirits rise as they had not done for weeks. She was standing, with her partner, near the head of the salon, awaiting their turn in the grand round, when she saw the longexpected party arrive and slip up the broad staircase, to divest themselves of their wrappings-or, rather, a part of it -for, while Mr. and Mrs. and Mr. Samuel Grizzle were there, they were unaccompanied by her sister and Mr. Dassel. A cold wind seemed to strike her from the opened door; she shivered to her heart's core; a sudden dimness came over the lamps; her partner addressed her, and she smiled mechanically, not knowing what he said; the music, so sweet, rising and falling in such lightly-palpitating beats of ecstacy, sounded afar off, as if her ears were filled with water. It did not sound like dance-music; it seemed to wail, "farewell! farewell!"

Yet Elizabeth could not tell what she dreaded. She longed to fly to the dressing-room, and ask Mrs. Grizzle why Milla had not come; but at that moment, her partner's hand touched hers; she was swept off in a throbbing wave of music-became a beautiful form and color in the shifting kaleidoscope of the dance. It was half an hour before she could release herself from its flying enchantments.

In the meantime Sam had come upon the scene, and was watching her from a distance, sadly aware that she wore no camelia, his heart swelling inside of his white silk vest, and aching dreadfully.

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