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 to be off. I got into my coat and took
down my opera hat. Outside the storm was still active; but the snow
had a promising softness, and there were patches of stars to be seen
here and there in the sky. By midnight there would be a full moon. I
got to Jersey City without mishap; and when I took my seat in the
smoker, I found I had ten minutes to spare. I bought a newspaper and
settled down to read the day's news. It was fully half an hour between
Jersey City and Blankshire; in that time I could begin and finish the
paper.