"Bah!" said he to himself, "how foolish I am; she must be all safe at the Chateau de Bruyeres, where I left her." But at that very moment he caught sight of a diamond ring--a large solitaire, peculiarly set--sparkling on her finger, which was precisely like one that the Marquise de Bruyeres always wore.
A little troubled by this strange coincidence, he took leave abruptly of the fair Yolande and her devoted old uncle, and hastened to the masked lady's box.

But, prompt as his movements had been, he was too late--the nest was empty--the bird had flown.

The lady, whoever she might be, had vanished, and the suspicious husband was left in considerable vexation and perplexity.

"Could it be possible," he murmured, as his doubts became almost certainty, "that she was sufficiently infatuated to fall in love with that miserable Leander, and follow him here?
Fortunately I had the rascal thoroughly thrashed, so I am even with him, how ever it may be." This thought restored his ruffled serenity, and he made his way as fast as he could to the green-room, to rejoin the soubrette, who had been impatiently expecting him, and did not hesitate to rate him soundly for his unwonted delay.
When all was over, and Leander--who had been feeling excessively anxious about the sudden disappearance of his marquise--was free, he immediately repaired to the open square where he had been first bidden to meet the carriage sent to fetch him, and where he had found it awaiting him nightly ever since.

The little page, who was there alone, put a letter and a small package into his hand, without a word, and then running swiftly away, before Leander had time to question him, vanished in the darkness.