Rutledge Part 49

"Had I better go?"

"That's as you please," with a slight shrug.

"Well, I'll see, after this dance. Who is that black domino, pray?"

"That is more than I can tell you. He is the only man in the room whom I have not detected. He has not danced, nor spoken to any one, I think. I shall watch him closely and be near him when he unmasks."

"Yes, but that's rather uncertain. He may leave the room before then."

"That's very possible. He seems to be hovering near us. Suppose, after this dance, you draw him into conversation, and try to make him out? He seems to avoid me, and I am really very curious to know him."

"Very well, to gratify you, I will try to detect him; but my cousin--will you take that duty off my hands?"

"Yes, I will send a servant to inquire, and report the result to you."

"Thank you. How _kind_ you always are! I should know that goodness of heart under twenty dominoes, and among a thousand people!"

My companion, bowing low, gave me a quick look from under the cowl of his monk's habit.

"You are too flattering," he said, and the dance ended.

The black domino was at my elbow, and nodding significantly to my partner, I turned abruptly to him, and said, still in imitation of Josephine's voice:

"Will you give me your arm? My partner has another engagement."

He bowed, and offered me his arm. His voice, when he spoke, was so low, and so studiously disguised, it was impossible to detect anything from that; his coa.r.s.e black domino hung so long and amply about him, and the hood was drawn so tightly around his mask, that no one could possibly distinguish anything of his face, figure, or carriage. Before we had made the tour of the rooms, I began to repent my bargain. There was something in his manner that made me most uncomfortable. I determined not to give up my a.s.sumed vivacity, but it was like chatting with a ghost; and when I went with him into the punch-room, and raised a gla.s.s to my lips, bowing to him over it, it seemed like a "hob-and-n.o.b with Death," and the laugh I laughed was a very faint and forced one, as we set our half-tasted gla.s.ses down. I was so uncomfortable at being alone with him, that I stammered hurriedly:

"Shan't we go back to the dancing-room?"

"Are you afraid of me?" he said quickly, and in a low tone, "can you not give me a moment from your pleasure?"

"Sir!" I said, shrinking back; "I haven't the least idea who you are."

"You can forget, it seems. I envy you the power!"

"You talk in riddles," I said, going toward the door. Another party entered the room, and my companion followed me out.

"What a grotesque scene!" I said, looking up and down the wide hall, where wreaths of flowers and lights and floating flags hung, and thronging across whose marble pavement were groups of fantastic figures.

"I never was at a masquerade before. Is it not diverting?"

"Will you come upon the piazza?" asked my companion, not heeding my remark. "It is too warm here."

"No," I exclaimed, hurriedly, "I cannot, here is my partner."

The "friar of orders grey" obeyed my hasty summons, and I accepted his arm with very great _empress.e.m.e.nt_, stammering some excuse to the sable domino in the doorway, and walked down the hall.

"Well, have you discovered him?"

"No, I do not know him at all, he is very odd. I think he is a stranger.

Not anybody, at all events, that any of us know well."

"I cannot understand it," he said, musingly. "I thought you would have been able to have obtained some clue. He seemed willing to talk to you."

"Only too willing!"

"Did he seem to recognize you?"

"I cannot tell exactly; he certainly thought he knew, but whether it were not a mistake on his part, I cannot say."

"He avoids me; I cannot make anything of him; I shall have to put some one else on the track."

"What of my cousin?" I asked.

"I found Kitty, who says she is not very well, but will probably be in the room a little before supper."

"Ah, thank you. You have no idea, I suppose, what her dress is to be?"

"Kitty gave me to understand, very quietly, that she would wear a rose-colored domino."

"There is a rose-colored domino just entering; do you imagine that is the fair _fiancee?_"

"Very possibly," said my companion.

"She is going to dance. Is that Phil with her?"

Phil at this moment asked my partner to be his vis-a-vis, so we were again drawn into the dance. By this time, half the people in the room thought I was Miss Churchill, and addressed me accordingly. In one of the pauses of the quadrille, as some one calling me by that name had turned away, the black domino, who stood a little behind me on my left, leaned forward and whispered:

"You cannot deceive _me;_ it was not Miss Churchill who was to have a blue ribbon on her ta.s.sel."

I started; what intrigue was that Kitty about?

The dance was over; Phil and his partner left the room and turned toward the piazza.

"Shall we go into the fresh air?" said my companion, following them with his eyes. I took his arm, and we went on the piazza. The soft light of the colored lamps, the mellow music floating out to us, the cool air in our faces--I met with a gasp of relief and pleasure. Leading me to a seat rather more secluded than the others, my companion threw himself on the sofa beside me, and exclaimed, removing his mask:

"This is so unsupportably warm, I must take it off for a moment's relief, as I believe you know me. Well! Miss Josephine, how do you think our masquerade has succeeded? Are you satisfied with the result?"

"Perfectly," I said, feeling very guilty, and leaning back further into the shade. "It has been a delightful affair."

He rested his brow thoughtfully and sadly on his hand for a moment. "You are tired," I said.

"Miserably tired."

It was well for me he did not require me to talk; I should have betrayed myself if I had attempted it. His eyes were riveted on the pair who stood a few yards from us. Phil, bending down, was whispering in low tones to his companion in the pink domino. There was something in her att.i.tude, as she listened with half-bent head, that I could not fail to recognize, and from below the edge of her domino, I caught a glimpse of yellow brocade. There was but one to whom Phil could talk in those earnest tones--but one to whom he could tell that tale. Josephine, I saw, must have gone upstairs, and put on the domino over her first dress, the more to puzzle some of her partners. Kitty had in some way become acquainted with her intention, and seized upon it to further the deception that she saw prevailed in regard to me. There was very little that escaped that clever jade. I wished, with a sigh, that she were less unscrupulous. In a few moments, the cousins pa.s.sed where we sat, nearly concealed from them, walking slowly and talking earnestly.

"You cannot ask me to endure it longer; this suspense is misery," he said, with a quiver in his manly voice.

"Dear Phil," murmured the clear, low tones of his companion, "you must know my feelings toward you; I have never tried to hide them; but you know how it is--you know it would be madness for either of us to think of each other."