I started to eat the ice myself, when, a moment later, Elaine passed through the hall with a Spanish cavalier.
"Oh, Walter, here you are," she laughed. "I've been looking all over for you. Thank you very much, sire," she bowed with mock civility to the cavalier. "It was only one dance, you know. Please let me talk to Boum-Boum."
The cavalier bowed reluctantly and left us.
"What are you doing here alone?" she asked, taking off her own mask.
"How warm it is."
Before I could reply, I heard some one coming down-stairs back of me, but not in time to turn.
"Elaine's dressing-table," a voice whispered in my ear.
I turned suddenly. It was the gray friar. Before I could even reach out to grasp his robe, he was gone.
"Another nut!" I exclaimed involuntarily.
"Why, what did he say?" asked Elaine.
"Something about your dressing-table."