ich he
would himself have gone after the Russian dinner; by the look of the
stars he saw that it must be midnight or past; the ball would be now at
its height.

The dare-devil wildness and the cool quietude that were so intimately
and intricately mingled in his natare could alone have prompted and
projected such a thought and such an action as suggested themselves
to him now; in the moment of his direst extremity, of his utter
hopelessness, of his most imminent peril, he went--to take a last look
at his mistress! Baden, for aught he knew, might be but one vast network
to mesh in and to capture him; yet he ran the risk with the dauntless
temerity that had ever lain underneath the indifferentism and the
indolence of his habits.

Keeping always in the shadow, and moving slowly, so as to attract no
notice from those he passed, he made his way deliberately, straight
toward the blaze of light where all the gayety of the town was centered;
he reckoned, and rightly, as it proved, that the rumor of his story,
the noise of his pursuit, would not have penetrated here as yet; his
own world would be still in ignorance. A moment, that was all he
wanted, just to look upon a woman's beauty; he went forward daringly and
tranquilly to the venture. If any had told him that a vein of romance
was in him, he would have stared and thought them madmen; yet something
almost as wild was in his instinct now. He had lost so much to keep her
honor from attainder; he wished to meet the gaze of her fair eyes once
more before he went out to exile.

In one of the string of waiting carriages he saw a loose domino lying
on the seat; he knew the liveries and the footmen, and he signed them to
open the door. "Tell Count Carl I have borrowed these," he said to the
servant, as he sprang into the vehicle, slipped the scarlet-and-black
domino on, took the mask, and left the carriage. The man touched his hat
and said nothing; he knew Cecil well, as an intimate friend of his
young Austrian master. In that masquerade guise he was safe; for the few
minutes, at least, which were all he dared take.

He went on, mingled among the glittering throng, and pierced his way
to the ballroom, the Venetian mask covering his features; many spoke to
him, by the scarlet-and-black colors they took him for the Austrian; he
answered none, and treaded his way among the blaze of hues, the joyous
echoes of the music, the flutter of the silk and satin dominoes, the
mischievous cha