Red Masquerade

oung body--but at least she was breathing, there was no more constriction of her windpipe; Her hea

at, the other the weapon with which she had cheated death: a bronze paperweight, probably a minia

the cheek laid open by the bronze was smeared with scarlet, accentuating the leaden colour of his skin. His mouth was ajar; his eyes, half

s. If he breathed, Sofia

y, threw back Victor's dinner-coa

hear nothing. But presently a beating re

on her heels, and after a little

lway came a sound of voices. She stood petrified in dread till th

l haste to patch up the disarray of veil and coiffure. Fortunately her cos

Victor seized her veil. She was calm enough now to consider herself fortunate in finding it so poorly s

nction. What he had suffered he had ten times--no, a hundred, a thousand--earned. Long before she left him Sofia had

d, and had lacked what two years of separation had given her, that spiritual independence which never befor

red his death, but that she knew it was now her life or his. She knew the man too well to flatter herself that he would rest before he had compassed such revenge as the baseness of his deg

s and left him lying there, in darkness but

and alert. But seemingly the noise of their struggle

ture, she let herself quietly out into the empty, silent, ra

er. In its obscure and stuffy refuge she sat hug

London, yes, and England, too, before Victor recovered

orth to be swift an

he must fly and hide to save her life, society had no more hold upon her, she need no longer fight to keep up appearances in spite o

is new and startling conception of life, an intoxicating pre

ints which a fixed environment imposes upon the individual, an impatience which had always been hers though it slumbere

she was set d

nd to tell the other servants there was no necessity for their doing so. She might be detained, Heaven alone k

had taken he

g the theft of Monsieur Lanyard's famous "Corot" by a strange, closely veiled woman, it was just as wel

tir, and at the door of her boudoir waited, listening, for several moments, in the course of which she heard, or fancied s

canvas before she went in; which last she did sharply, with head up and eyes flashing ominously benea

e was nowhere to be seen. Nor did she answer f

absorbed in mischief, Sofia threw the cloak across a chai

ed Spanish dagger that now did service as a paper-knife was actually in her hand when she noticed how

of the canvas and with one swift tug strip

t wrung from her was bitte

er fingers. Victor had been beforehand with her, had purloined the letters and restored the canvas to its frame. She might have suspected as

n Victor's possession--lost irretrievably, since she would never find the courage to go back for them, ev

hought to rifle V

she uttere

me, never

as she was to the verge of

ebonair, nothing threatening in his attitude, merely an easy

eur La

ut mockery: "Madame la pri

incredible, the utterly impossible fact of his presence there. T

Lone

strated, indulgently--"t

lifting a hand to

ai

Then, appreciating that she had yielded whe

demanded, r

he counter

ts--to have them c

ppreciate the police might be at a los

need to bite her lip to keep from laughing. She hesitated. He was right and reasonable enough, this impudent and

onsieur the Lone Wolf brought with him this

jewels of a tit

he rudeness, as if he said: "Sorry--but you asked for it, you know." He stepped aside, caught up a handful of her jewels that had been left, a tempting heap, o

as his comment, whimsic

erly and faced him, blazing with resentment. He

esse didn't know

ou say they

aken advantage of madame's confidence. Excellent imitat

!" she stormed

e me. A knowledge of jewels

elf upon the chaise-longue, and wept passionately into its cushions. Then the young man proved himself tolerably instructed in the ways of womankind. He said nothing

of lace and linen. Then she looked round with a tentative smile that was

uousness--one of her most compelling charms. "But it's

expert ever w

was anything but a lifelong friend--"I needed money s

she will permit--comman

ying her eyes, "you calle

vely, "you had already c

t, monsieur, when I fi

when I find she had been to mine--and brou

a rea

ha

t wa

-secretly--without exciting the jealousy, which I

to see me alone?" she dem

ion to offer her what may possib

at his game? His attitude remained consistently too deferential and p

did you

umes, through oversight on the part of one of the s

us. In spite of herself

is wonderful consolati

m a pocket a pa

said. "If she will be so amiable as to accept them from m

d him more than words could ever. "Y

those letters. And I see you

r has re

her thoughts were far from the man with whose memory these letters were linked, they were in fact not wholly articulate. Just what was passing through her mind she herself wo

sense of frustration and peril to one of security; the uprush of those strange instincts which had lain dormant till roused by the knowledge that she was free at length from the maddening stupidity of soc

ng maze of emotions but vaguely apprehended, she started up, faced round

nsi

, coolly quizz

re you

eparture, madame la prin

ait--co

before her, or rather over her--for he was the taller by

't thank

r treating myself to

cost y

tunes of

soft with an elusive bloom of unwonted feeling. Her eyes held a puzzled

trange man,

one say of madam

d laughter rings the de

some other who must have led an interesting life--had rema

onsieur, I am dee

s in her of haunting loveliness, the gentle shadows that lay beneath her wide--yet languorous eyes, the almost imperceptible tremor of her sweetly fashioned lips, all

iffly, "by the knowledge that the ho

ow her hands had found the way to

it was barely audible. And she laughed once more.

into other eyes that were like pools of violet shadow troubled by a deep surge and resurge of feeling for which there was

she resigned the