“The best is still too far,” he whispered; “is it unattainable?”
“Always strive to attain the best,” replied the mocking voice, “even at the risk of scaling the inaccessible walls of an opera-box.”
“I cannot get to thee, fair mask, without momentarily letting go this tiny hand, and it is never safe to let a bird, even for a moment, out of its cage.”
“Black Domino, we often must risk the lesser to obtain the great,” said the odalisque maliciously.
“I entreat your Imperial Highness to remain here,” said the second domino imploringly; “you are here incognito: I am the only one in attendance on your Highness, and——”
“All the more reason why it should be possible for one brief moment, for a Tsarevitch to do as he likes,” retorted the taller domino laughingly.
And, before his companion had time to add another word of warning, the young man had, with the freedom which King Carnival always allows at such a time and in such places, climbed the ledge of the box, and scrambled with youthful alacrity into the one that contained his mysterious bright-eyed houri.
But alas! for the waywardness and fickleness of the daughters of the East, no sooner had the black domino safely reached terra firma once more, after his perilous climb, than the swift opening and shutting of the door told him but too plainly that the will-o’-the-wisp wished to evade him yet again.
What young man is there, be he prince or peasant, who would have allowed so mocking a game to be carried on at his expense. Nicholas Alexandrovitch, son and heir of the Tsar of all the Russias, remembered only that he was twenty years of age, that he had come to the opera ball, accompanied by that dry old stick Lavrovski, with the sole purpose of enjoying himself incognito for once, and… he started in hot pursuit.
The passage behind the boxes was quite empty, but in the direction leading to the foyer, some fifty yards distant, he distinctly caught sight of a swiftly disappearing figure, and the heels of the prettiest pair of Turkish slippers it had ever been his good fortune to see.