itch. The rest at once
provoked and eluded conjecture; she fancied she knew Lyttleton in the
doublet and hose of Sir Francis Drake, but could not feel certain;
divested of his peculiarly well-tailored personality, he was
astonishingly like half a dozen other men among the guests.

Presently Mrs. Gosnold's maid, Marie, appeared in the doorway to the
bedroom, holding in her hand a number of envelopes, and at a nod from
her mistress began to thread the gathering, presenting one envelope to
each guest, together with a small pencil such as is commonly attached
to dance-programs.

The incident provided a grateful interruption to a situation that was
rapidly assuming in Sally's esteem the grotesqueness of a dream.
Remembering that this was Gosnold House, the focal point of America's
most self-sufficient summer colony, and that all these subdued and
inarticulate masqueraders were personages daily exploited by the press
as the brightest stars in the social firmament, the incongruity of
this dumb gathering seemed as glaring, as bizarre as anything her
fancy could conceive.

And when her envelope was handed her and she had lifted the flap and
withdrawn an oblong correspondence-card bearing the monogram A-G and
nothing else, the final effect of meaningless mystery seemed to
have been consummated.

But this, as it happened, was coincident with the arrival of the last
two guests--one of whom was a lithe and shapely Harlequin in
party-coloured tights, and the other a bewitchingly blond Columbine--
and then the purpose of the meeting was soon exposed.

With no more expression than she had employed in the case of Sally,
Mrs. Gosnold saluted the last comers with a request to enter and be
seated, then directed her maid to go out into the hall, close the
door, and stand guard to prevent eavesdropping. When the door was
closed she plunged directly into a prepared address.

"I owe every one an apology," she began with a fugitive, placating
smile, "for all this inconvenience and nonsense--as it must seem. But
I'm sure you will bear with me when you know the circumstances, which
are extraordinary, and my motive, quite a natural one.

"We are now," she pursued with a swift glance that embraced the room,
"just twenty-three, including myself; that is to say, everybody who
slept here last night, and one or two more. And your masks are a sure
screen for any betrayal of emotion when I tell you why I have asked
you to oblige me by meeting he