"You say that he will make any sacrifice to please me?"
"He will—he will."
"Then he cannot refuse the appointment which I am about to propose to you. On Monday evening next there is to be a masked ball at Drury Lane Theatre. At ten o'clock precisely I will be there, dressed as a Circassian slave, with a thick veil over my face. Let him be attired as a monk, so that he may be enabled to shroud his features with his cowl. We shall not fail to recognise each other."
"Again I ask if you are in earnest?" demanded the old woman, surprised at this singular arrangement.
"I was never more so," answered Ellen.
"But why cannot the appointment take place at my abode?" said the hag.
"Oh! fie—the immaculate rector in your dirty court in Golden Lane!" ejaculated Ellen.
"That court was once good enough for you, my child," muttered the old woman.
"We will not dispute upon that point," said the young lady. "If I am worth having, I am worth humouring; and I must test the sincerity of the attachment which your phœnix experiences for me, by making him seek me at a masked ball."
"Oh! the caprices of you fair ones!" ejaculated the hag. "Well, my child, I will undertake that it shall be as you desire."