How I loved the harlequin in the Drury Lane pantomimes at Christmas time! He was always the ideal lover to me, for there was no trick, no prank this bespangled hero could not play to success.

He always went incognito, for he wore his narrow mask of black.

He performed the most marvellous things for his Columbine,--and was she not a worthy sweetheart?
No, no, Mr.
Ridge:--not the fool, I pray.

Please be the harlequin," she cried in rare good humor.
"As you like it," he said, reflecting her spirits.

"I am the harlequin and this is, perforce, the harlequin's errand." They were silent for a long time, then he said soberly: "It was such a foolish thing to do, after all." She looked up at him for a moment, the bitterness fading from her hungry eyes, a smile struggling feebly into power.