"Well, to meet a friend. There now!"
"Who is it?"
"Sha'n't tell you yet. Here we are at home."
Celeste glanced from the window, and saw the court-yard full of carriages, the hall illuminated, and throngs of people pouring in.
"Is it possible, Gipsy, this is a large party?"
"Yes; just so, my dear."
"Oh, Gipsy! it was too bad of you to entrap me in this way!" said Celeste, reproachfully.
"Fiddle! it's a great thing to go to a party, ain't it? Come, jump out, and come up to my dressing-room; I have a still greater surprise in store for you."
Celeste passed, with Gipsy, through a side door, and both ran, unobserved, up to her room. Then—after an hour or so, which it took Gipsy to dress, both descended to the saloon, where the dancing was already at its height.
Their entrance into the crowded rooms produced a decided sensation. Gipsy, blazing with jewels, moved along like a spirit of light, and Celeste, in her fair, moonlight beauty, looking like some stray angel newly dropped in their midst.