ly masks in costume would be admitted. As she
considered four days to be too short a time for getting ready a
complete costume, he proposed to her that, since she expressed herself
as willing to be admitted to Bohemia, she should come as a gypsy. He
offered to provide her, through his artist friends, with beautiful and
genuine materials. It would be very easy for her to get plenty of
bright coral and pearl ornaments and strings of coins with which to
ornament her hair; and he would take her to some stores where such
things could be bought. This costume, he concluded, would have the
double advantage of being easily gotten up with a few feathers and
scraps, and of permitting the wearer--since masks for the face were
prohibited--to dye her skin, to blacken her eyebrows, and to make
herself as unlike herself as possible. "I, myself, always appear as a
Spaniard, as the Knight of the Rueful Countenance, or as Duke Alba. If
I could have a Gitana upon my arm, I should be quite in character, and
should create a sensation for the first time; for they are not used to
seeing me appear with a beautiful partner."

As he said this he kissed the young lady's hand, quite in the courtly
Spanish manner, and made as though he would take leave. But she still
held him tightly.

"Will--that girl come, too?" she said, hesitatingly.

"What girl, Fraeulein?"

She looked steadily before her. "I heard all!" she said, with a slight
tremor in her voice. "The walls in this hotel are so thin that one
cannot help overhearing, in spite of one's self, all that is being said
in the next room. Oh, tell me candidly; is it really true?"

"Unquestionably. My dear young lady, if you were a little better
acquainted with the society which surrounds you, you would find this
case by no means an extraordinary one. Besides, the circumstances are
favorable enough this time. Her own grandfather has already taken his
long-lost granddaughter in charge; so jealously, indeed, that he would
not give her up to her father, even if the latter wished it; and the
girl herself is good and respectable. She is--"

"I know her," interrupted Irene, blushing. "And yet--it would agitate
me greatly if I should chance to meet her at the ball. There are all
sorts of--I will tell you some other time, if you feel interested."

She suddenly broke off, and he saw that she was struggling with her
tears.

"You may make your mind easy, my dear Fraeulein," said he, taking up his
hat an