gh. "Time
is a--a very sudden thing!"

Sudden, indeed! How long since he had been a badly bored, impatient
young man, mocking the follies of the masquerade? How long since he
had danced with Jinny, flouting her notion of this sort of thing as
life? How long since he had looked into a pair of dark disquieting
eyes ... listened to a gay little voice....

Many important things in life happen suddenly. Juliet happened very
suddenly to Romeo. Romeo happened as suddenly to Juliet.

But Jack Ryder was not remembering anything about Romeo and Juliet.
He was watching that glance steal to the wrist watch again.

Then, as if with a determination of the spirit, they smiled up at
him.

"Monsieur the American," said the black domino, "you have been most
kind to an--an incognita--of a masque. I hope that you dig out of
your sands all the secrets that you most desire."

"You sound as if you were saying good-bye," said Jack Ryder with
quick denial in his blood.

The smile in her eyes flickered.

"Perhaps I have kept you too long from the other guests."

He shook his head. "They don't exist."

"Ah! I will give you the chance to say such nice things to them."

"But I never say nice things--unless I mean them!"

"Never--monsieur?"

"Never. I am very careful what I say," he assured her, even as he
had assured another girl, in what different meaning, hours or
centuries before. "You can believe anything that I say."

"A young man of character! Perhaps that goes with the Scotch
costume. I have read the Scots are a noble people."

"They haven't a thing on the Americans. You must know me better and
discover--"

But again her eyes had gone, almost guiltily, to that watch. And
when she raised them again they were not smiling but very strangely
resolved.

"Monsieur, it is so hot--if you would get me a glass of sherbet?"

"Certainly." Convention brought out the assent; convention turned
him about and marched him dutifully toward the crowded table she
indicated.

But something deeper than convention, some warning born of that
too-often consulted watch and that strange look in her eyes, that
uneasy fear and swift resolve, turned him quickly about again.

Other couples had strolled between them. He hurried through and
stepped back among the palms.

The place was empty. The black domino was gone.

* * * * *

He wasted one minute in assuring himself that she was not hidden in
some corner, not