CHAPTER XII.
TANNHAUSER'S FLIGHT.
"To be as much alone with you in great Paris as if we were on a desert island in the Pacific--in the midst of the crowd, yet having no part with it; spectators of its amusing doings, and yet unnoticed by it.

You all my world, and I yours--what a sweet and perfect dream!" Thus Pilar as she went out in fine weather, thickly veiled, on Wilhelm's arm into the crowded streets, and she did her utmost to prolong the charming delusion as far as possible.

She paid no visits, invited no one to the house, avoided every familiar face in the street.

Through the consul and Don Antonio, however, her more immediate circle got wind by degrees of her return to Paris, and visitors began to call at the little house on the Boulevard Pereire who would not submit to being sent away.

With the versatility of mind peculiar to her, Pilar soon adapted herself to the new position of affairs, and tried to make the best of it.