“The deuce!” exclaimed Pylades, laughingly, “what good eyes you must have to make out all that at such a distance!  Now I see merely a woman at a window, who is rather pretty, to tell the honest truth, but not likely to possess half the perfections you so lavishly bestow upon her.  Take care, or you will be in love with her directly.”

“Oh!  I’m that now, over head and ears.  I must find out forthwith who she is, and what; but one thing is certain, mine she must be, though it cost me the half, nay, the whole of my fortune to win her, and there be a hundred rivals to overcome and slay ere I can carry her off from them in triumph.”

“Come, come, don’t get so excited,” said Pylades, “you will throw yourself into a fever; but what has become of the contempt and hatred for the fair sex you were declaring so vehemently just now?  The first pretty face has routed it all.”

“But when I talked like that I did not know that this lovely angel existed upon earth, and what I said was an odious, outrageous blasphemy—­a monstrous, abominable heresy—­for which I pray that Venus, fair goddess of love and beauty, will graciously forgive me.”

“Oh, yes! she’ll forgive you fast enough, never fear, for she is always very indulgent to such hot-headed lovers as you are.”

“I am going to open the campaign,” said Orestes, “and declare war courteously on my beautiful enemy.”

With these words he stopped short, fixed his bold eyes on Isabelle’s face, took off his hat, in a gallant and respectful way, so that its long plume swept the ground, and wafted a kiss on the tips of his fingers towards the new object of his ardent admiration.  The young actress, who saw this demonstration with much annoyance, assumed a cold, composed manner, as if to show this insolent fellow that he had made a mistake, drew back from the window, closed it, and let fall the curtain; all done calmly and deliberately, and with the frigid dignity with which she was wont to rebuke such overtures.

“There,” exclaimed Pylades, “your Aurora is hidden behind a cloud; not very promising, that, for the rest of the day.”

“I don’t agree with you; I regard it, on the contrary, as a favourable augury that my little beauty has retired.  Don’t you know that when the soldier hides himself behind the battlements of the tower, it signifies that the besieger’s arrow has hit him?  I tell you she has mine now, sticking in under her left wing; that kiss will force her to think of me all night, if only to be vexed with me, and tax me with effrontery—­a fault which is never displeasing to ladies, I find, though they do sometimes make a great outcry about it, for the sake of appearances.  There is something between me and the fair unknown now; a very slight, almost imperceptible thread it may seem at present, but I will so manage as to make from it a rope, by which I shall climb up into her window.”

“I must admit,” rejoined Pylades respectfully, “that you certainly are wonderfully well versed in all the stratagems and ruses of love-making.”