ingly, “the more easily you will be satisfied with what you really do find. And seriously, do you think our aunt will be absent?—You do not know the good lady; it is precisely on account of this masked ball that she is here, and if she be at the ball, it follows as a matter of course that Eloisa will be there too.”
I suffered myself to be persuaded. We sent for dominos, and presented ourselves when the room was already full. Enveloped in our mantles, we observed for a long time in silence the motley stream that rolled about us, and, for my part at least, without much sympathy. On a sudden Wagen jogged my elbow, and called my attention to a harlequin and columbine, who were just then entering. He had previously learned from Eloisa’s maid that such was to be the disguise of my intended and her aunt; a disguise that filled me with astonishment, which I could not help expressing to my friend—I allude of course to the aunt’s dress; to that of columbine there could be no objection.
“My good youth,” said Wagen, who was at the utmost a year and a half older than myself
