nd will not accept her word for
it that she wore no such disguise as they describe. Which reminds me
that the offender, or the offender's double, for I have an idea there
were two masked alike, came into your box early in the evening with a
companion. You have not forgotten--that black domino with the crow's
beak?"

Aurora jumped on her seat with a cry of "Goodness gracious!"

"What is it?" he asked, looking at her more attentively. She appeared
aghast.

She did not answer at once, tensely trying to think.

"Well," she finally exclaimed, relaxing into limpness, "I've been and
gone and done it!"

And as he waited--

"I guess I did that insulting," she added, and wiped her brow.

He thought for a moment that she might be acting out a joke, but in the
next accepted her perturbation as genuine.

"Can't you see through it even now I've told you?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"Did you suppose I didn't really know those two who came into the box,
the one who roared and the one who cawed? Well, I'm a better actress
than I supposed."

"But--"

"And did you really suppose I was going home to bed just as the fun was
at its height? There again you're simpler than I thought. Land! Don't I
wish now that I had gone home!"

"And you--"

"We'd heard so much from everybody of the pranks they play at these
vegliones of yours that we wanted to play one, too--we wanted to
intrigue you and a lot of other people. The trouble seems to be we did
it too well. Land! I wish I hadn't done it! I wish Heaven I'd consulted
you, or some one--We hatched it all up with Italo and Clotilde."

"Italo and Clotilde!"

"They were the two who came into the box and didn't say a word, for fear
of being known by their voices. Then, after you had so politely seen us
off, Estelle and I in the carriage put on black dominos and crows'
beaks, and after driving around a couple of blocks came back and found
Italo and Clotilde waiting for us. Clotilde had put off her black domino
in the dressing-room; she was dressed under it exactly like her brother.
D'you see now how we worked it? Estelle took Clotilde's arm, and I took
Italo's; we separated and kept apart, and it was as if there had only
been one couple, the same as there had been since the beginning of the
evening."

"I see."

"I've been dying to tell you about it ever since, but I just haven't
told you. I don't know what I was waiting for. I guess I was enjoying
letting you stay fooled. I