tore a leaf out of
his pocketbook, and wrote on it, "I must tell you how I honor and thank
you for that letter. To-morrow--ten o'clock--the wicket-gate at the
back of the Ascoli gardens. Believe in my truth and honor, Nanina, for
I believe implicitly in yours." Having written these lines, he took from
among his bunch of watch-seals a little key, wrapped it up in the note,
and pressed it into her hand. In spite of himself his fingers lingered
round hers, and he was on the point of speaking to her again, when he
saw the waiting-woman's hand, which was just raised to motion him away,
suddenly drop. Her color changed at the same moment, and she looked
fixedly across the table.

He turned round immediately, and saw a masked woman standing alone in
the room, dressed entirely in yellow from head to foot. She had a yellow
hood, a yellow half-mask with deep fringe hanging down over her mouth,
and a yellow domino, cut at the sleeves and edges into long flame-shaped
points, which waved backward and forward tremulously in the light air
wafted through the doorway. The woman's black eyes seemed to gleam with
an evil brightness through the sight-holes of the mask, and the tawny
fringe hanging before her mouth fluttered slowly with every breath she
drew. Without a word or a gesture she stood before the table, and her
gleaming black eyes fixed steadily on Fabio the instant he confronted
her. A sudden chill struck through him, as he observed that the yellow
of the stranger's domino and mask was of precisely the same shade as
the yellow of the hangings and furniture which his wife had chosen after
their marriage for the decoration of her favorite sitting-room.

"The Yellow Mask!" whispered the waiting-girls nervously, crowding
together behind the table. "The Yellow Mask again!"

"Make her speak!"

"Ask her to have something!"

"This gentleman will ask her. Speak to her, sir. Do speak to her! She
glides about in that fearful yellow dress like a ghost."

Fabio looked around mechanically at the girl who was whispering to him.
He saw at the same time that Nanina still kept her head turned away, and
that she had her handkerchief at her eyes. She was evidently struggling
yet with the agitation produced by their unexpected meeting, and was,
most probably for that reason, the only person in the room not conscious
of the presence of the Yellow Mask.

"Speak to her, sir. Do speak to her!" whispered two of the waiting-girls
together.

Fabi