her head and chin, and rendered
even her mouth invisible, while her forehead and the upper part of her
face were protected by a black velvet mask. And the blackness of those
eyes that penetrated me was so intense that scarcely were any whites
discernible.

An indescribable emotion ran over me as I stood under the ban of an
evil power, as it were, returning the look of that strange figure. I had
forgotten Undine. Drawn by some invisible force, I approached the nun
with mechanical footstep.

"Why, fair mask," I accosted her with a bold laugh, "are you alone?
Surely you know that for dancing and love two are needed!"

Briefly, like a Chinese idol, she nodded her head in assent; a thrill
seemed to pass over her wonderfully slender shape; yet she did not
budge.

I became more venturesome from a sudden feeling as of fire rushing
through my veins.

"You may be vowed to seclusion, beautiful bride of Heaven, but to-day
the convent walls have released you, to-day you are of the world and the
flesh, to-day you are mine!"

Thus I cried aloud, forgetting in my excitement that I was in a country
where my mother tongue was only spoken and understood at the German
legation.

In a moment it occurred to me: Did the mask know German?

To my astonishment, she gave an immediate sign of intelligence by
gliding, silently as a shadow, another step in my direction, and her
biasing eyes appeared to kindle with merriment. Had she a veil over her
eyes? It almost looked so and this extraordinary measure of precaution
challenged me the more strongly to overcome her reluctance to being
known.

"Do you understand me?" I asked.

She nodded in the same brief, jerky manner as before.

"Do you know me?"

Similarly she answered by negative motions of the head. I stepped up
close to her with the question:

"But will you not know me and love me? Come into my arms, and let us
dance!"

Then something happened that at the moment I found surprising and
extremely startling, yet which I took for a mere carnival freak,
while later on I could scarce review the occurrence with any degree of
clearness.

The nun threw her arms about me abruptly and almost desperately, and
whirled me into a frenzied dance. I felt no body between my arms, and
did not hear the rustle of her dress; I only saw those enigmatic
dark eyes, which glowed near, very near, my own. And in mad career,
regardless of the musical time or of the tune played, my curious partner
tor