“But what an audacious report was that,” observed one, “which pretended to assert the identity of this strange creature with a young lady,”—­and here he mentioned her name,—­“the daughter of one of our most distinguished families!”

“Ah, there is more in that story than can well be accounted for,” remarked another.  “I have it on good authority, that the young lady in question is invariably out of sight, and not to be traced, even by her own family, at the hours when the Veiled Lady is before the public; nor can any satisfactory explanation be given of her disappearance.  And just look at the thing:  Her brother is a young fellow of spirit.  He cannot but be aware of these rumors in reference to his sister.  Why, then, does he not come forward to defend her character, unless he is conscious that an investigation would only make the matter worse?”

It is essential to the purposes of my legend to distinguish one of these young gentlemen from his companions; so, for the sake of a soft and pretty name (such as we of the literary sisterhood invariably bestow upon our heroes), I deem it fit to call him Theodore.

“Pshaw!” exclaimed Theodore; “her brother is no such fool!  Nobody, unless his brain be as full of bubbles as this wine, can seriously think of crediting that ridiculous rumor.  Why, if my senses did not play me false (which never was the case yet), I affirm that I saw that very lady, last evening, at the exhibition, while this veiled phenomenon was playing off her juggling tricks!  What can you say to that?”

“Oh, it was a spectral illusion that you saw!” replied his friends, with a general laugh.  “The Veiled Lady is quite up to such a thing.”

However, as the above-mentioned fable could not hold its ground against Theodore’s downright refutation, they went on to speak of other stories which the wild babble of the town had set afloat.  Some upheld that the veil covered the most beautiful countenance in the world; others,—­and certainly with more reason, considering the sex of the Veiled Lady,—­that the face was the most hideous and horrible, and that this was her sole motive for hiding it.  It was the face of a corpse; it was the head of a skeleton; it was a monstrous visage, with snaky locks, like Medusa’s, and one great red eye in the centre of the forehead.  Again, it was affirmed that there was no single and unchangeable set of features beneath the veil; but that whosoever should be bold enough to lift it would behold the features of that person, in all the world, who was destined to be his fate; perhaps he would be greeted by the tender smile of the woman whom he loved, or, quite as probably, the deadly scowl of his bitterest enemy would throw a blight over his life.  They quoted, moreover, this startling explanation of the whole affair:  that the magician who exhibited the Veiled Lady—­and who, by the bye, was the handsomest man in the whole world—­had bartered his own soul for seven years’ possession of a familiar fiend, and that the last year of the contract was wearing towards its close.