we ascended, rushing down two steps at a time, with an expression of considerable disgust and disappointment on his handsome countenance. Above we heard rough sounds of merriment. They continued as we approached and we found a middle-aged man, with a long beard, in a state of uncontrolable laughter. So soon as he could stop himself, he warmly welcomed the artist and bowed to the Jew and myself.

"A thousand pardons, gentlemen. Make my acknowledgments, Hans, I pray you; but so amusing an incident has happened. Ha, ha, ha— ho, ho, ho!"

The artist, seized with the infection, laughed too-even the Jew grinned. As for me, having a presentiment that this was some further unlucky contre-temps, I awaited as patiently as possible the solution of the mystery.

"Ha, ha, ho, ho. Did he run over you, Monsieur-the Count of Dauphigny. Never did

I see a man so furious, so disappointed."

66

What, the Frenchman we met on the stairs? He came, then, to see the Fraulein ?"

"Right, right. Ha, ha! and told me that he had chased her over half Europe. Nay, at Paris he had seen the chief of police, and offered one hundred louis for information."

At this a chorus of laughter rendered further words inaudible. The artist stamped with delight, and the Jew held up his hands, and displayed a prominent set of fangs, in his amusement. I felt as if I should go mad, and wondered when my turn

would come to be included in this mystical affair A terrible idea seized me, that the whole of my unsuspicious tormentors might be freemasons. Some political plot might be going on. Some

These reflections were interrupted by an apologetic start from the individual with the long beard, who rushed to a corner of the room where there was a little door, and, begging a thousand pardons, intimated that "He had forgotten Monsieur," indicating me, "had come to see the fraulein."

The apartment was evidently a studio. Part of the roof was of glass. Curtains were arranged so as to form various lights, ad libitum. Some tools lay on the floor. In the centre of the room appeared a pyramidal object, which I presumed was an easel, covered with a large brown sheet.

On some chairs, at the extreme end of the room, lay various articles of feminine attire-dresses, mantles, lace collars, a stylish bonnet. It was very strange. What a habitation, what a resort, and what companions for the Queen of Beauty!

My friend with the long beard advanced to the pyramid, twisted off the brown sheet with one dexterous flourish, and disclosed to my astonished gaze a statue of pure white marble-a master-piece of art.

"La voilà!" exclaimed he. "The Fraulein herself! The famous Estatica of Rechetti!"

In a moment, the whole truth rushed upon my mind. This marvellous demoiselle, then, was a statue, modelled in most part, except posture and expression, from the Venus de Medicis. The photo

graph had been taken from this piece of faultless sculpture, artistically coloured, and adorned with lace, feathers, and flowers.

The disappointment was so sudden and overwhelming, and withal so unexpected, that I felt it would be impossible to control myself. Turning my back upon the German, I made for the door, rattled down the staircase, recklessly, with headlong speed, plunged into a cabriolet which was passing; stopped only long enough at the hotel to pay my bill, and gained Wiesbaden before dinner time, having luckily caught a train at the Eisenbahn Station.

And now ask me no more about photographs, or stereoscopes of any kind. kind. I have foresworn them altogether!

CHAPTER XIII.

TOTAL ECLIPSE.

"Fair hope is dead, and light

Is quenched in night.

What sound can break the silence of despair?
O doubting heart!

Thy sky is overcast,

Yet stars shall rise at last,
Brighter for darkness past,

And angels' silver voices stir the air."

A. A. PROCTOR.

TOTAL ECLIPSE! This portion of my story is well and truly named, for a dark shadow had spread over the orb of light, whose beams were to me life itself, and interposed to cause the gloom of despair.

In the natural eclipse there is an instantaneous obscuration of the sun, terrifying and awe-inspiring, filling the mind with fear and presentiments of evil, despite all the influences of science. In my case there was a rapid transition from joy to hopelessness, and a swift sinking of the heart down,

down, till all the present seemed a delusion, all the future a mockery and an endurance.

In the natural eclipse the strange indigo pall resembles neither the darkness of night nor the gloom of twilight. The cone of the moon's shadow, though it completely envelopes the spectator, does not enclose the whole atmosphere above his horizon. The mass of unenclosed air accordingly catches the sunlight, and reflects it into the region of the total eclipse, making there a peculiar twilight.

In my case there was not the darkness of the grave, or the twilight of only partially extinguished hope; but an obscurity peopled with shadows, a chill unrest, a corona of dull pain, raying out its pulsations of disappointment and torment-a chaos of hesitancy and doubt; and, at the worst, a black dreariness of apathy to all things around. It was, for the time, indeed a total eclipse!

Those first days of my return to London were the gloomiest and saddest I can remember. In the country, and even in the dusty streets of the city, everything was merry and glad. I kept close within my rooms, seeing no one, caring for no one; struck down with the failure of my hopes.

Total Eclipse! The birds fly about in sudden confusion, the cattle show their terror and unrest, and in my mind raged a jarring discord, and the feelings which would before have made sweet harmony were all thrown out of tune.

The

In the eclipses of the soul we cannot calculate duration as we may in the eclipses of the sun. astronomer may predict, for far off ages, the periods