pose as an artist's model. The classic oils,
nowadays, call only for exquisite creations in gowns and hats;
mythology was exhausted by the old masters. Rome, Paris, London;
possibly a bohemian existence in these cities accounted for her ease in
striking up a conversation, harmless enough, with a total stranger. In
Paris and Rome it was all very well; but it is a risky thing to do in
unromantic New York and London. However, her uncle had been with her;
a veritable fortress, had I over-stepped the bounds of politeness.

The smoke wavered and rolled about me. I took out the ten of hearts
and studied it musingly. After all, should I go? Would it be wise? I
confess I saw goblins' heads peering from the spots, and old Poe
stories returned to me! Pshaw! It was only a frolic, no serious harm
could possibly come of it. I would certainly go, now I had gone thus
far. What fool idea the girl was bent on I hadn't the least idea; but
I easily recognized the folly upon which I was about to set sail.
Heigh-ho! What was a lonely young bachelor to do? At the most, they
could only ask me to vacate the premises, should I be so unfortunate as
to be discovered. In that event, Teddy Hamilton would come to my
assistance. . . . She was really beautiful! And then I awoke to the
alarming fact that the girl in Mouquin's was interesting me more than I
liked to confess.

Presently, through the haze of smoke, I saw a patch of white paper on
the rug in front of the pier-glass. I rose and picked it up.

NAME: _Hawthorne_
COSTUME: _Blue Domino_
TIME: _5:30 P. M._
RETURNED:
ADDRESS: _West 87th Street_

FRIARD'S

I stared at the bit of pasteboard, fascinated. How the deuce had this
got into my apartments? A Blue Domino? Ha! I had it! Old Friard had
accidentally done up the ticket with my mask. A Blue Domino; evidently
I wasn't the only person who was going to a masquerade. Without doubt
this fair demoiselle was about to join the festivities of some
shop-girls' masquerade, where money and pedigree are inconsequent
things, and where everybody is either a "loidy" or a "gent." Persons
who went to my kind of masquerade did not rent their costumes; they
laid out extravagant sums to the fashionable modiste and tailor, and
had them made to order. A Blue Domino: humph!

It was too late to take the ticket back to Friard's; so I determined to
mail it to him in the morning.

It was now high time for me