12
THE COURIER.
A small black boy In white velvet
looking like a pocket edition of the big
negro was asleep on the high leather
chair in the hall. Wlvct touched his
arm.
"Let me out," he said.
The boy sat up. "Yes, miss," he
said, quietly; and opened the door.
' Velvet's cab was waiting outsldp, and
Howard was asleep in one corner of It
III.
"My letters?' said Velvet, extending
pink Angers from the black and gold
curtains of his bed.
Howard brought them three. Vel
vet opened the first with a little laugh;
It was from' Sue.
"Dear George (I call you George be
cause It Is a nice, manly name. I al
ways think of you as a nice, English
George. What on earth does 'Velvet'
mean, after all? It Is stupid): I have
made up my mind to do an exceedingly
wild and wicked thing. It la the first
really bad thing in my life. I am going
to the French ball!
"That is not all. I want to go with
jou! I know it is outrageous, and
that Dick would go into a blue rage if I
told him, but I have made up my mind
to be wild for once; and I will go, and
with you. I know you will appreciate
the honor no! that is not the word. I
mean, what trust I put in you, to ask
you to take me to such a place. After
all, you are a sort of bohemian,
being on the stage, and all that; and
different from them ninybrcthe: brings
home. Although I am sure of some of
them, fven if they aie leader writers
and art critics but that has nothing to
do with it. In return for this trust and
confidence on my part, I want you to do
me a favor. Be just as much of a man
on Wednesday night as you can. Dress
as severely and squarely and correctly
as possible. Pleas?, no rings. And
have your hair cut And I wish you
would grow a mustache; but, of course,
you cannot by Wednesday. (By the
way, Dick says that rum, petroleum and
castor oil is. a great thing to make a
mustache grow. Tou rub it oa is the
evening. It smells rather bad.)
"I will come to your theatre on
Wednesday night so that we do not
make it too late for the ball. Take
your evening clothes with you and get
ready directly after your turn. I have
taken a box No. 18 R., second row !
and shall wait there until you come out
Do not make It late, Dear George. At: I
am going to be wicked I might as well
have as much of the wickedness as 1
can get I shall dress in white, very
pretty, with lilies of the valley. Your
little friend. ' SUE."
- "I shall take Mary with me to the
theatre. She will not tell."
Velvet picked up the next letter,
written on pale yellow coroneted note
paper. He opened it with a little sigh;
it was from Lalia.
"MaPiflnecherie!
"To reward you oh! not for your
goodness, or kindness, or tender-heart-edaeas,
sechante que tu es! but to re
ward you for the gracious fact of your
existence, for the shadow of your eyes
and the light of your .smile, and for
the divine possibilities of your tantaliz
ing beauty. I will escort you if you
ar very meek and very pretty to the
French ball on Wednesday.
- "Ye, of all ray friends and friends
(what a stupid word it is in English) I
choose you, oh, mystery! problem! tor
ment! yoa, Velvet, you!
"In receaapoose of such favor all I ask
is that you shall wear the shortest, the
mot fluffy, the most girlish of your
XemiBiae flounces. Put oa all your
Bists:'ssd powders. Wear all your
fliaaasaaaad all yoar affections. I will
' j. .-.
"Adieu, ma belle amie; I kiss your
beautiful, lazy bands. LALIA.
"I Bhall wait for you In my box after
the performance, you know. No. 14 I"
The letter fluttered out of his "hand
like a tried butterfly, and he picked up
the third. It was a gentlemanly scrawJ,
and VelveJ neither laughed nor sighed
as he opened it He bent his curled
head and read:
"Dear Boy: What do you say to
going to the French ball? Will wait
for you in my box after the show. If
jou want me to come around for you
to the dressing room, send Howard.
"I vote for no fancy costume or ma.k.
Come as you really are, V lvet Good
by. TOM."
IV.
"Somebody's eyes are my only light."
sang Velvet, stepping in floating radi
ance on trie stage, and turning a slow,
delicate gaze up to Lalia's box.
Lalia, dressed in a scarlet frock with
white satin shirt front and huge dia
mond studs, her hair curled and parted
on one side like a boy's, gave a little
gasp of pleasure as her eyes met his;
then she paled away, weakly, hrlp'.essly.
Of the three men in her bzx, two bent
over to each other and laugLxd; the third
looked exceedinly angry and turned his
bak with a shrug of disgust to th
stage.
Somebody's love has turrel my night
Into an ever perfect "liy.
warbled Velvet with a qu.ck, gleaming
smile in the direction of box 18 R, where
Sue, in fluttering white and tremulous
lilies, sat half hidden behind the cur
tains. She blushed up like a rose, from
her timid neck to her mild forehead,
where the fair locks rippled blandly.
Opposite her in the box sat her maid,
in black, with a round straw hat and
poppies.
"Say, sweetheart is that somebody
you?" sang Velvet, looking straight be
fore him at an empty box. Empty, ex
cept that a man a tall, handsome man
of about forty sat quiet at the back
of it, twirling his heavy mustache.
Velvet took the last high note a
pianissimo as softly, as lightly, as
thinly as if it had been the point of a
needle, and held it like a thread.
The applause followed loud and up
roarious. Velvet was encored and
whistled at and yelled at until the comic
Irishman rolled onto the stage and made
the public change its mind.
The program was continued and
ended.
The fire curtain was let down, tha
crowds left the boxes, filed out of tne
scats, pushed out of the gallery. Light?
were turned out and attendants went
around turning up the seats.
Lalia, in her scarlet frock and white
satin shirt front, sat in box No. 14 L.
She was alone; she had snt the gentle
men away, and they had gone, sneering
and offended, to talk about this latest
freak of hers.
Opposite her, in box No. 18 R, second
row, sat Sue, in her muslin and lilacs,
frightened and ashamed. She had sent
her maid home and was wishing that
she had gone, too, and that she had:
never come.
In a box facing the stage a man with a.
heavy mustache was lighting a cigar.
At last a door leading fromthe stage
behind the lower boxes closed noisily.
Quick, soft strpa along the carpeted
aisle, and some one appeared In the au
ditorium of the theatre.
It was not George, In correct evpninff
dress and manly shirt front; square of
shoulder, short of hair, and English,
of demeanor.
Nor was it Fifine, in the shortest of
fluffy skirts, the barest of naughty
shoulders, the toothpickiest of satin
shoes.
It was Velvet It was a boy; very
young, very charming and very pale.
He wore a lavender-colored suit, that
showed the droop of his shoulders and
the lightness of his waist; a light-blue
satin tie, cream-tinted kid gloves, and
high-heeled, patent leather shoes. A
small, very shiny high hat was perched
on his clustering curls, and he carried
an absurd little cane with a gold knob
on it.
He walked along the center aisle of
the theatre, and half way down he
stopped.
"Ladith." he said, in a frail, treble
voice, looking up first at one and then
at the other, and speaking with a curi
ous little lisp that was evidently part
of his make-up, tI. amvery thorry. I
whith you had ;nqtmcomer'I whith you
would not teathe me-tha.I am going
to the ball with my father."
The ladies went home alone.
The Cosmopolite.
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All Kinds of Baths Scientific, Masseurs. A Deep Sea Pool, 50x142 feet.
Drs. Everett, Managing- Pln-sicians.
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