Hearts and Masks | Page 9

an incident; and, but for
his picking up that card, I never should have remembered him.
Behind him sat a fellow with a countenance as red and round and
complacent as an English butler's,--red hair and small twinkling eyes.
Once he leaned over and spoke to my chance acquaintance, who,
without turning his head, thrust a match over his shoulder. The man
with the face of a butler lighted the most villainous pipe I ever beheld. I
wondered if they knew each other. But, closely as I watched, I saw no
sign from either. I turned my collar up and snuggled down. There was
no need of his seeing me.

Then my thoughts reverted to the ten of hearts again. My ten of hearts!
The wrinkle of a chill ran up and down my spine! My ten of hearts!
Hastily I took out the card and examined the back of it. It was an
uncommonly handsome back, representing Diana, the moon, and the
midnight sky. A horrible supposition came to me: supposing they
looked at the back as well as at the face of the card? And again,
supposing I was miles away from the requisite color and design? I was
staggered. Here was a pretty fix! I had never even dreamed of such a
contingency. Hang it! I now wished I had stuck to my original plan,
and gone to the theater. Decidedly I was in for it; there was no backing
down at this late hour, unless I took the return train for Jersey City; and
I possessed too much stubbornness to surrender to any such weakness.
Either I should pass the door-committee, or I shouldn't; of one thing I
was certain--
"Blankshire!" bawled the trainman; then the train slowed down and
finally came to a stop.
No turning back for me now. I picked up my suit-case and got out. On
the platform I saw the curio-shop fellow again. Tramping on ahead, the
smell from his villainous pipe assailing my nostrils, was the man who
had asked for a match. The former stood undecided for a moment, and
during this space of time he caught sight of me. He became erect, gave
me a sudden sardonic laugh, and swiftly disappeared into the dark. All
this was uncommonly disquieting; in vain I stared into the blackness
that had swallowed him. What could he be doing here at Blankshire? I
didn't like his laugh at all; there was at once a menace and a challenge
in it.
"Any baggage, sir?" asked one of the station hands.
"No." But I asked him to direct me to a hotel. He did so.
I made my way down the street. The wind had veered around and was
coming in from the sea, pure and cold. The storm-clouds were broken
and scudding like dark ships, and at times there were flashes of radiant
moonshine.

The fashionable hotel was full. So I plodded through the drifts to the
unfashionable hotel. Here I found accommodation. I dressed,
sometimes laughing, sometimes whistling, sometimes standing
motionless in doubt. Bah! It was only a lark. . . . I thought of the girl in
Mouquin's; how much better it would have been to spend the evening
with her, exchanging badinage, and looking into each other's eyes!
Pshaw! I covered my face with the grey mask and descended to the
street.
The trolley ran within two miles of the Hunt Club. The car was
crowded with masqueraders, and for the first time since I started out I
felt comfortable. Everybody laughed and talked, though nobody knew
who his neighbor was. I sat in a corner, silent and motionless as a
sphinx. Once a pair of blue slippers attracted my eye, and again the
flash of a lovely arm. At the end of the trolley line was a carryall which
was to convey us to the club. We got into the conveyance, noisily and
good-humoredly. The exclamations of the women were amusing.
"Good gracious!"
"Isn't it fun!"
"Lovely!" And all that. It must have been a novelty for some of these to
act naturally for once. Nothing lasts so long as the natural instinct for
play; and we always find ourselves coming back to it.
Standing some hundred yards back from the road was the famous
Hollywood Inn, run by the genial Moriarty. Sometimes the members of
the Hunt Club put up there for the night when there was to be a run the
following morning. It was open all the year round.
We made the club at exactly ten-thirty. Fortune went with me;
doubtless it was the crowd going in that saved me from close scrutiny.
My spirits rose as I espied Teddy Hamilton at the door. He was on the
committee, and was in plain evening clothes. It was good