The Story

“With all my heart,” said the General, with an effort; and after a short pause in which to arrange his subject, he commenced one of the strangest narratives I ever heard.

“My dear child was looking forward with great pleasure to the visit you had been so good as to arrange for her to your charming daughter.”  Here he made me a gallant but melancholy bow.  “In the meantime we had an invitation to my old friend the Count Carlsfeld, whose schloss is about six leagues to the other side of Karnstein.  It was to attend the series of fetes which, you remember, were given by him in honor of his illustrious visitor, the Grand Duke Charles.”

“Yes; and very splendid, I believe, they were,” said my father.

“Princely!  But then his hospitalities are quite regal.  He has Aladdin’s lamp.  The night from which my sorrow dates was devoted to a magnificent masquerade.  The grounds were thrown open, the trees hung with colored lamps.  There was such a display of fireworks as Paris itself had never witnessed.  And such music—­music, you know, is my weakness—­such ravishing music!  The finest instrumental band, perhaps, in the world, and the finest singers who could be collected from all the great operas in Europe.  As you wandered through these fantastically illuminated grounds, the moon-lighted chateau throwing a rosy light from its long rows of windows, you would suddenly hear these ravishing voices stealing from the silence of some grove, or rising from boats upon the lake.  I felt myself, as I looked and listened, carried back into the romance and poetry of my early youth.

“When the fireworks were ended, and the ball beginning, we returned to the noble suite of rooms that were thrown open to the dancers.  A masked ball, you know, is a beautiful sight; but so brilliant a spectacle of the kind I never saw before.

“It was a very aristocratic assembly.  I was myself almost the only ‘nobody’ present.

“My dear child was looking quite beautiful.  She wore no mask.  Her excitement and delight added an unspeakable charm to her features, always lovely.  I remarked a young lady, dressed magnificently, but wearing a mask, who appeared to me to be observing my ward with extraordinary interest.  I had seen her, earlier in the evening, in the great hall, and again, for a few minutes, walking near us, on the terrace under the castle windows, similarly employed.  A lady, also masked, richly and gravely dressed, and with a stately air, like a person of rank, accompanied her as a chaperon.

“Had the young lady not worn a mask, I could, of course, have been much more certain upon the question whether she was really watching my poor darling.

“I am now well assured that she was.

“We were now in one of the salons.  My poor dear child had been dancing, and was resting a little in one of the chairs near the door; I was standing near.  The two ladies I have mentioned had approached and the younger took the chair next my ward; while her companion stood beside me, and for a little time addressed herself, in a low tone, to her charge.