"Oh, _I_ don't know that it amounts to anything," said Mrs. Elmore; but
she did not delay further.

It appeared from what she went on to say that in the German, which began
not long after midnight, there was a figure fancifully called the
symphony, in which musical toys were distributed among the dancers in
pairs; the possessor of a small pandean pipe, or tin horn, went about
sounding it, till he found some lady similarly equipped, when he
demanded her in the dance. In this way a tall mask, to whom a penny
trumpet had fallen, was stalking to and fro among the waltzers, blowing
the silly plaything with a disgusted air, when Lily, all unconscious of
him, where she sat with her hand in that of her faithful princess,
breathed a responsive note. The mask was instantly at her side, and she
was whirling away in the waltz. She tried to make him out, but she had
already danced with so many people that she was unable to decide whether
she had seen this mask before. He was not disguised except by the little
visor of black silk, coming down to the point of his nose; his blond
whiskers escaped at either side, and his blond moustache swept beneath,
like the whiskers and moustaches of fifty other officers present, and he
did not speak. This was a permissible caprice of his, but if she were
resolved to make him speak, this also was a permissible caprice. She
made a whole turn of the room in studying up the Italian sentence with
which she assailed him: "Perdoni, Maschera; ma cosa ha detto? Non ho ben
inteso."

"Speak English, Mask," came the reply. "I did not say anything." It came
certainly with a German accent, and with a foreigner's deliberation; but
it came at once, and clearly.

The English astonished her, and somehow it daunted her, for the mask
spoke very gravely; but she would not let him imagine that he had put
her down, and she rejoined laughingly, "Oh, I knew that you hadn't
spoken, but I thought I would make you."

"You think you can make one do what you will?" asked the mask.

"Oh, no. I don't think I could make you tell me who you are, though I
should like to make you."

"And why should you wish to know me? If you met me in Piazza, you would
not recognize my salutation."

"How do you know that?" demanded Lily. "I don't know what you mean."

"Oh, it is understood yet already," answered the mask. "Your compatriot,
with whom you live, wishes to be well seen by the Italians, and he would
not let you bow to an Austri