They were Spanish doubloons!_ _As, in common with the rest of the audience, I looked at this picturesque pair, my eyes forsook the lady of the doubloons, and fastened themselves with a half-certainty of recognition upon her companion.

Why! surely it was -- -- -- --, an old dare-devil comrade of mine, whose disappearance from New York some ten years before had been the talk of the two or three clubs to which we both belonged.

A curious blending of soldier, poet, and mining engineer, he had been popular with all of us, and when he had disappeared without warning we were sure that he was off on some Knight-errant business--to Mexico or the Moon!_ _He was, indeed, wearing that disguise of Time, which we all come involuntarily to wear--an unfamiliar greyness of his hair at the temples, and a moustache that would soon be a distinguished white; yet the disguise was not sufficient to conceal the youthful vigour of his personality from one who had known him so well as I.The more I looked at him, the more certain I grew that it was he, and I determined to go round to his box at the conclusion of the second act._ _Then, becoming absorbed in the play, I forgot him and his companion of the doubloons for a while, and when I looked for them again, they had vanished.

However, a letter in my mail next morning told me that the observation had not been all on my side.

My eyes had not deceived me.