OLIVER (entering). Your servant, sir!

BELSIZE. I wonder who this is? But I must finó Twombly, and then I will attend to this stranger, who—~ (Oliver looking around, Belsize bows and exit).

OLIVER (joyfully). At last I am near her, at last we are beneath the same roof! The peace, the joy which only one woman in a world of women can give me is mine henceforth. My five years of misery is like a hateful dream; I will think of them no more, but look into the radiant future where all is satisfaction. But where is she? Does she not expect me? Surely she knew that I would come as quickly as steam could bring me. Yet I did not ring, finding the door open when I entered and-ah, here is some one! (Enter Bessie. He hands his card to her and walks up and down.)

BESSIE (reading card). "Mr. Roland Oliver." I wonder if this is the expected friend from beyond the seas? [Exit.

OLIVER (pausing in his walk). What lover is not a fool? Does not some one say that he who has never been a fool will never be a wise man? If that argument holds good what magnificent promises have I of yet being a latter-day Solomon? Why does she linger? Oh, Dolores, Dolo(Sees gloves.) What! A man's gloves in Dolores' drawing. room? I met a man as I came in-are they his gloves? Is their ostentatious display an affirmation of his rights in this house? Have I hoped too much?-have I believed in her too fondly? Have I been too happy? She jilted me once, she may-Oh, Fate, Fate, she loves another and would again humiliate me! Never! She shall not guess at my pain, poor fool that I am! I will hide everything-she shall not triumph over my school-boy power of imagina tion! But the cruelty of it, the cruelty of it! And I have loved her all these years! (His hand to his head. Enter Mrs. A.) MRS. A. (joyfully.) Once again, ah, once again! OLIVER (turning and bowing). Mrs. Althrop!

MRS. A. (her hand to her heart.) Mrs. Althrop! What does this mean?-your letter to me?-this visit?

OLIVER. My letter! my visit! Surely, madame, you do not accuse me of too much unconventionality?

MRS. A. Unconventionality.

OLIVER. I could scarcely pass through this place without calling on one whom I have known so long as I have known you.

MRS. A. Oh, these figments of politeness! You are very kind, sir, in your friendly attentions. I trust that you have been happy in the years when we have not met.

OLIVER. Happiness is a relative term. Yet that you have been happy I dare not doubt; your countenance, your holiday raiment, preclude the possibility of such a doubt.

MRS. A. (aside.) And this gown was worn for him! (Aloud.) And, sir, after thanking you for your visit may I ask permission to retire? I-am not well just now▬▬ OLIVER (running to her). Dolores-Mrs. Althrop! MRS. A. (repulsing him.) Peace, sir!

OLIVER (aside). She despises me, and I have forced this visit on her. (Aloud.) Pardon me; for the moment I feared that you were ill.

MRS. A. I am strong-though almost as weak as I was when you formerly knew me.

OLIVER. Iam stronger than I was then.

MRS. A. Which fact you should appreciate. I presume your return to America is for pleasure.

OLIVER. I came to be married.

MRS. A. (faintly.) Married!

OLIVER (bitterly). Yes, married, and to a woman I have loved for years. I think I wrote you that I had a special purpose in coming.

MRS. A. I congratulate you! And now-pray allow me to retire-I am not quite well (bowing and walking up stage). OLIVER. Stay, madame! I cannot let you go thus. We may never meet again. After leaving you I make my preparations for sailing to France, never to return.

MRS. A. (ironically, to conceal her emotion.) Which is truly deplorable. It is to be hoped that your wife will enjoy her foreign residence. You say France, which in the American dialect means Paris-"When good Americans die they go to Paris," you know. Pray burden yourself with my compliments to the lady of your choice, the compliments of one who thought she knew you-one who knew you in her girlish life and forgot that time is not so lenient to hearts as to faces. You have not altered outwardly.

OLIVER. Would you reproach me?

MRS. A. Have I the right to reproach you?

OLIVER. Reproach is a privilege; scarcely a right.

MRS. A. I merely speak as women with my experience are prone to speak. May you be happy! Adieu!

OLIVER. Adieu, madame! I need not wish you that which you already have so abundantly,-happiness.

MRS. A. You are too good. Yes, I am happy, superlatively happy; women accused of happiness seldom deny the accusation.

OLIVER. Especially women who enjoy belleship and a court of fawning men.

MRS. A. Sir!

OLIVER (angrily). Dolores, this is all child's play. You know why I come to America burning to touch my native soil once more, to feel as I once felt when I thought that the heart of a woman was all my own. And I find the fruit of my life but apples of Sodom-beautiful to the eye, ashes between the lips.

MRS. A. But you came to be married, you said.

MRS. A. You have not told me, and I refuse to knowI have some feeling left. Adieu!

OLIVER. You will not hear me?

MRS. A. I will not. (Going, when bell rings violently, and Bessie rushes in.)

BESSIE. Oh, madame, here is Major Twombly and the Honorable Mr. Belsize, and the Honorable Mr. Belsize has blacked Maior Twombly's eye, and Major Twombly has scratched the Honorable Mr. Belsize's face and smashed his new hat, and

The door bursts open and enter Twombly and Belsize in a state of dilapidation.

TWOMBLY. I am Major Arthur Wellington Twombly, at present traveling in America, and I desire the history of those gloves which —

BELSIZE. I am the Honorable Henry Belsize, locomoting through the country, and I —

TWOMBLY. I demand to know if those gloves

BELSIZE. Do those gloves belong to Major Twombly? TWOMBLY. Do they belong to this honorable gentleman?

BESSIE. Oh, gentlemen! gentlemen!

OLIVER. Dolores, can it be that these men form a part of your court!

MRS. A. Bessie! oh, is there no one to whom I can fly? TWOMBLY. To me!

BELSIZE. To me! to me!

MRS. A. Roland

OLIVER (turning from her). Those gloves, Dolores
MRS. A. Gloves?

TWOMBLY. Whose gloves are they?

BELSIZE.

BESSIE. Oh, madame, these old gloves are the cause of it all. MRS. A. Roland, you to doubt me! you whom I-oh, but I have not the right to appeal to you.

OLIVER.
MRS. A.
TWOMBLY.

You have-you have

You came to America to be married.
So did I.

BELSIZE. So did I.

OLIVER. I came to marry a woman whom I thought loved me. I find her false to me, and false to herself.

gloves

Those

MRS. A. Roland! Roland! Do you mean that I-am I the woman you came to

MRS. A. (running and taking gloves from table, turning them inside out and holding them to Oliver.) Whose name is written there?

OLIVER (looking). What do I see? come up and look over his shoulder.)

(Twombly and Belsize

MRS. A. Your own name. You wore these gloves the last time you saw me—when I told you that I had accepted Percy Althrop. I have always kept them. (Gwes them to him.) OLIVER. Dolores, oh, forgive me! forgive me! (Holds out his arms and taking her to him, they converse aside.)

TWOMBLY (to Bessie). What! The gloves are his? Then there is no opera to-morrow evening!

BESSIE (holding out her hand). I am deaf.

BELSIZE. Is she going to marry this man?

BESSIE (her hand out). I am usually deaf at this time of the day-it runs in my family.

TWOMBLY. The Honorable Henry Belsize, it runs in my

mind, as it runs in this girl's family to be deaf at this time of the day, that we have been swindled, swindled, sir.

BELSIZE. Major Twombly, I am a fellow victim. The fault has been neither yours nor mine.

OLIVER (leading Mrs. A. forward). The fault has been mine, Dolores, for you never doubted me, while I

MRS. A. It is the fault of a pair of gloves,-it is my fault. OLIVER. May the fault lean to virtue's side-or mine (holding Mrs. A. to him, while Twombly and Belsize hook arms). TWOMBLY. I merely called-ah-to ask after your health, madame. I have now the double pleasure of hoping that you may be inexpressibly happy in the alliance which I see you are about to make. (Bows stiffly.)

BELSIZE. The Major expresses my sentiments. (Bows.) OLIVER. And I express Mrs. Althrop's, I am sure, when I thank you for your generous wishes, and I assure you that I have to thank for my happiness

TWOMBLY (fiercely). Not me.

BELSIZE (fiercely). Not me.

BESSIE. Nor me (laughing).

MRS. A. Nor me (catching the gloves from Oliver and holding them above her head), but

ALL (Twombly and Belsize amazedly, Bessie laughingly, Oliver tenderly). A Pair of Gloves!

Curtain falls

SCHOOL CANTATA.-LOUISA P. HOPKINS.

ARRANGED FOR THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR.

Set to the music of "Pinafore."

SCHOLARS' SONG.

Tune, "We Sail the Ocean Blue."
We love our pleasant school,
Our teacher, too, we honor;

We mind her kindly rule,

Our blessings rest upon her.

When the term is complete, our playmates dear we meet, Then with joy we run and play;

Vacation is begun, our school-days almost done,

So happily endeth the day.