"Miss Lascelles!" she repeated. "I am Miss Lascelles," Then, looking at
me more narrowly, "I suppose," she added, "you are the little boy that
brought the letter?"

The little boy that brought the letter! Gracious heavens! And this
middle-aged woman in a cotton gown--was she the Angelina of my dreams!
The booth went round with me, and the lights danced before my eyes.

"If you have come for an answer," she continued, "you may just say to
your Mr. Pyramid that I am a respectable married woman, and he ought to
be ashamed of himself--and, as for his letter, I never read such a heap
of nonsense in my life! There, you can go out by the way you came in,
and if you take my advice, you won't come back again!"

How I looked, what I said, how I made my exit, whether the doorkeeper
spoke to me as I passed, I have no idea to this day. I only know that I
flung myself on the dewy grass under a great tree in the first field I
came to, and shed tears of such shame, disappointment, and wounded
pride, as my eyes had never known before. She had called me a little
boy, and my letter a heap of nonsense! She was elderly--she was
ignorant--she was married! I had been a fool; but that knowledge came
too late, and was not consolatory.

By-and-by, while I was yet sobbing and disconsolate, I heard the
drumming and fifing which heralded the appearance of the _Corps
Dramatique_ on the outer platform. I resolved to see her for the last
time. I pulled my hat over my eyes, went back to the Green, and mingled
with the crowd outside the booth. It was growing dusk. I made my way to
the foot of the ladder, and observed her narrowly. I saw that her ankles
were thick, and her elbows red. The illusion was all over. The spangles