"Wasn't it?" said Joan doubtfully. "But I've seen pictures…'
"That's good enough for me," announced Faust, and prepared to depart.
As he turned, the end of the scabbard dug into a complete stranger who looked furious and said icily that it was quite all right. "That makes the third time I've caught that bloke with it," whispered Faust, not without satisfaction.
"Perhaps you had better do without it," Joan said reluctantly. She turned her attention to Amberley. "You mustn't take off your mask till midnight, you know," she reproved him.
He put it on again. "Why are masks de rigueur, Marguerite?" he inquired.
"You mean we ought just to have had dominoes with them? I know, but I specially wanted a fancy-dress ball, and masks are such fun that I thought we might have them too."
"Your brother doesn't wear one, I notice," remarked the sheikh, nodding to where Fountain, an imposing Cardinal Wolsey, stood talking to Mme de Pompadour.
"No, because he's the host. Shall I find you a partner, Mephistopheles?"
Amberley was watching a girl at the other side of the ballroom. "Will you introduce me to the contadina?" he asked.
Joan glanced in the girl's direction. "Yes, of course, but I don't know who she is."