seek love or amusement here?' and many
other meaningless absurdities were squeaked into her ear by some unwary
ones who had not recognised the much-feared Landhofmeisterin in the tall
yellow-clad figure. She shot a glance of contempt at her interlocutors
and pushed past them. Of a sudden she was surrounded by a circle of
red-garbed gnomes who danced round her. 'Let me pass, good people,' she
said; and when they would not, she broke through the chain of their arms
and hurried on. They would have followed, but a black mask caught the
ringleader and whispered in his ear, and the laughing gnomes fell back
murmuring together.

The Duke was still dallying with the blue domino; Wilhelmine saw him lead
her to one of the windows which opened out on to the terraces. She
followed swiftly, hardly hearing the comments and whispers of the
revellers who took this occasion to convey insulting words to the hated
woman. As she reached the window in whose balcony she knew her lover to
be, she felt a hand on her arm. She turned angrily.

'What do you want? how dare you hinder me?' she said. It was a tall, thin
domino who accosted her, entirely black, and with a skull and crossbones
embroidered in white upon the breast. A startling figure, and to
Wilhelmine's overwrought nerves it seemed to be the figure of Death come
to snatch her life's glory and happiness from her in this her triumph of
the completion of the palace.

'What do you want of me?' she said again, conquering her superstitious
fear.

'I would speak to you, Madame; I have a warning to give you.' The voice
was deep and low, and after the squeaky tones which the revellers
affected in order to disguise their natural voices, this man's bass notes
sounded hollow and funereal.

'Speak then here,' she answered.

'No; my warning must be given to you where none can hear,' he responded;
and once more laying his black-gloved hand on her arm, he drew her away
from the window towards a door which led down a short flight of steps
into the moonlit garden. Did the man mean murder? It flashed across
Wilhelmine that she was going blindly into danger. She paused on the
topmost step of the flight.

'I will go no further; speak now, or I leave you here.' Her voice was
calm, though her hands were trembling a little.

'I am sent to tell you that your hour has come; that your ill-gotten
power, your evil triumphs, are waning.' His voice was deep, sonorous,
impressive.

'Who sends you?' she