“All right, then. We have no time to lose. It is half-past ten o’clock now. At twelve supper will be served, when all the guests will lay aside their masks. So you see that we have but an hour and a half to effect our change of dress and hoax our wise companions. Just before supper we must slip up here again and change back, so that we may unmask at supper in our proper disguises.”
“All right!” exclaimed Trix, delighted with the plan.
“And there is one more caution I must give you. Keep out of the way of my husband. He knows my character of Fire Queen, and if he should see you near him in that dress, he would be sure to speak to you for me; and if you should attempt to reply, no matter how well you might imitate my voice, your speech would certainly betray you.”
“All right! I will keep away from your husband, if I can; but how shall I know him?”
“He is dressed as Harold the last of the Saxon Kings!”
“Oh! is that Mr. Berners? And I never suspected it! I thought that was some single man, desperately smitten with the charms of Edith the Fair,” continued Beatrix.
“Oh, yes, I dare say you thought, but you were mistaken. Edith the Fair is our guest, Mrs. Blondelle. And she took the character of Edith to support Mr. Berners in Harold, and to be true to these characters they must act as they do; for Harold and Edith were lovers in history,” explained Sybil, speaking calmly, though every word uttered by her companion had seemed like a separate stab to her already deeply wounded bosom.
“‘Lovers in history’ were they? I should take them to be lovers in mystery now, if I did not know them to be Mr. Berners and Mrs. Blondelle,” persisted Beatrix, all unconscious of the blows she was raining upon Sybil’s overburdened heart. “However,” she added, “I shall keep out of the way of both, for if he knew your disguise, be sure that she knew it also; and of course both, in daily intercourse with you, know your voice equally well. And if either of them should take me for you and speak to me for you, and I should attempt to reply, I should be sure to betray myself. So I will keep away from both, if I can. If not, if they should come suddenly upon me and speak to me, I shall not answer, but shall turn around and walk silently away as if I were offended with them.”
“Yes, do that; that will be excellent,” assented Sybil.
“And now, how are you going to support my character, or rather my disguise?” inquired Beatrix.