"I am sorry," I said, "but you have made a mistake. Your Jesuit probably told you his card would be the nine, not the ten."
"I will wager—"
"Hush! This is a charity dance; no one makes wagers at such affairs."
"But—Why, my goodness! there's my Jesuit now!" And to my intense relief she dashed away.
I carefully observed the Jesuit, and made up my mind to keep an eye upon him. If he really possessed the ten of hearts, the man who kept tally on the cardboard was doing some tall thinking about this time. I glided away, into the gorgeous ball-room.
What a vision greeted my eye! The decorations were in red and yellow, and it seemed as though perpetual autumnal sunset lay over everything. At the far end of the room was a small stage hidden behind palms and giant ferns. The band was just striking up A Summer Night in Munich, and a wonderful kaleidoscope revolved around me. I saw Cavaliers and Roundheads, Puritans and Beelzebubs, Musketeers, fools, cowboys, Indians, kings and princes; queens and empresses, fairies and Quaker maids, white and black and red and green dominoes. Tom Fool's night, indeed!
Presently I saw the noble Doge of Venice coming my way. From his portly carriage I reasoned that if he wasn't in the gold-book of Venice he stood very well up in the gold-book of New York, He stopped at my side and struck an attitude.
"Pax vobiscum!" said I, bowing.
"Be at the Inquisition Chamber, directly the clock strikes the midnight hour," he said mysteriously.
"I shall be there to deliver the supreme interrogation," I replied.