The Gray Nun | Page 2

and almost desperately, and
whirled me into a frenzied dance. I felt no body between my arms, and
did not hear the rustle of her dress; I only saw those enigmatic dark
eyes, which glowed near, very near, my own. And in mad career,
regardless of the musical time or of the tune played, my curious partner
tore around the room with me faster and faster, and with ever
increasing fury. Her arms gripped me tighter and tighter and I was
threatened with complete loss of breath in the wild race. Of a sudden I
received a violent blow, resembling an electric shock, from each of her
hands on my shoulders, felt myself all at once liberated, and staggered
faint against a pyramid of plants. Boisterous laughter sounded on my
ear; some other masks had surrounded and seized me, exclaiming:
"Look at the fine gentleman! He is out of his mind, dancing about the
room like a madman, quite alone!"
I opened my eyes and looked all around. What had become of my
partner?
Not a sign of her was to be seen, although this other room was likewise
very large, just then not well filled with people.
"Have I been dancing alone?" I gasped, tearing the mask off my
burning face.
"Quite alone! Did you imagine it was with your sweetheart?" was the
mocking, noisy reply.

I was deeply annoyed. "Nonsense!" I cried. "You are all in the
conspiracy! Where has the nun gone? It was no lady at all, it was a man
in disguise!"
They laughed still more, and some whispered behind fans that I must
be drunk.
Strange sensations invaded me. Had a joke been played at my expense?
Had a member of the German legation dressed in female clothes, and in
the height of his whimsical caprice danced with me in that insane
fashion? Were the guests in the secret, and were they amusing
themselves--as the freedom of the carnival permitted--with teasing a
foreigner? Yet surely the mysterious nun must be discoverable. My
knees were trembling from a weakness I was unable to account for, but
I collected myself, and while various thoughts coursed through my
brain for a solution of this carnival prank, I hastened with feverish
speed through rooms and galleries in quest of the nun. But in vain. I
espied neither herself, nor met anyone who had seen her. The lackeys
and doorkeepers assured me in perfect good faith that they had seen no
nun of any sort.
"The costume is one of which His Majesty does not approve," I was
informed in the cloak-room. "It is considered irreverent to appear at
balls here in the spiritual garb of a nun or a monk, and therefore it is
not done. It would certainly have been observed by us had any lady or
gentleman transgressed against the prevailing usage."
"Then perhaps I may have mistaken for a nun some other mask, who
intended in her gray suit to represent Twilight or Care," I excused
myself hesitatingly, though I had an accurate eye for dresses, and could
have registered a solemn oath that the mysterious unknown was even
wearing especially authentic claustral attire. No one, however, could by
any effort remember having noticed a costume anything like that
described by me.
"Are there any secret passages to any of the rooms and galleries which
are the scene of tonight's festivities?" I asked a doorkeeper. He looked
at me in surprise, and answered:

"All ways of communication were opened today because of the crowd
of guests, but for safety's sake guarded and watched more carefully
than usual. Only the tapestried corridor running the length of the great
colonnade to the royal apartments was left unguarded, since in that
place there is no possibility of improper intrusion."
A new idea flashed across me. The spot on which I had first set eyes on
my nun was at the entrance to that corridor. Might not a member of the
royal family have elected to make me, as a novice in this foreign court
society, the subject of a merry jest? No doubt the nun was a man in
disguise, and the young princes and dukes were probably capable of
pouncing on the victim and dancing him to death.
My confusion was perhaps very diverting, and the secrecy of the few
spectators of the joke, who were, of course, initiated, was quite
praiseworthy.
They asserted not having seen a nun at all, and laughed at me for
having rushed round the room alone, like a lunatic, Obviously there
was no further room for doubt, this explanation and no other was valid.
Why had I not thought of this before!
So I joined in the hilarity of the others and made the best of my
discomfiture. In any case, the manner