"I will go to her directly, but I must dress at once. See that something for me to eat is got ready directly. Is there any news of the Baroness Gratz or of the girl?"
"None, there is not a suspicion of the trick."
My spirits were rising fast, for everything was going well. Despite all their devilment I was master of the position. I held their man in my clutches; and before the night was a couple of hours older they should see openly enough that I had outwitted them. But it was exciting work.
Before hurrying to put on my fancy-dress costume—I was going as a French courtier, a dress in which I could wear a sword and could conceal a revolver easily—I went to Minna's rooms to let her know I had returned.
She came to me looking so radiantly lovely that I gazed at her in rapture. We had chosen her dress with a care for the part she had to play that night, and she wore a double costume. In the first place she was to wear a plain dark domino covering her entirely from head to foot, the head, of course, to be hooded and the face entirely concealed by a large mask. But underneath this she wore a gorgeously brilliant dress as Maria Theresa; the rich magnificence of the costume being further set off by a profusion of jewels of all kinds, which sparkled and glittered with dazzling brilliance. On her head as crown she wore a splendid tiara of magnificent pearls.
This was all arranged of set purpose. My object was that in the first part of the evening she should run no risk of recognition at all; and that in the second when I led her forward as the actual Queen, she might produce the greatest possible impression of queenly wealth, grandeur, dignity, and loveliness.
If the impression on others were only half as striking as it was upon me, I should be more than satisfied; and if a beautiful and queenly presence could win adherents there was not a man in the ball-room who would not be on her side.
She enjoyed the effect of her loveliness upon me, and stood smiling with bright eyes as I gazed at her.
"Shall I do, cousin?" she asked, with a dash of coquetry.
"The most lovely vision I have ever seen," I cried.