—“My dear youth, only wait till you get to my years, and these matters will cease to puzzle you. When a woman can no longer attract by sighs and looks, she endeavours to command attention by the singular and grotesque, and, to be candid, I never saw a harlequin of more grace and activity.”
So too the rest of the company seemed to think, for a thick crowd had collected about Eloisa and her aunt, who were dancing together. All were curious to know who the harlequin was.
The greater my anxiety to learn how Eloisa passed the evening, the more attentive it behoved me to be in preserving my incognito. In our present state of difference it would hardly be wise to let her see I followed her; and, Wagen having left me in pursuit of a fair Circassian, I retreated in an opposite direction, but not so far as to lose sight of my ladies. Unfortunately the crowd of masks grew so thick between us, that I was soon obliged to content myself with transient glimpses of columbine; and, as to Wagen, he did not return,
