"And that you are not the little wife of a citizen who sells groceries, but the charming Prudentia?"
"I acknowledge nothing," she repeated, but with a smile that shewed her fine teeth under the dark mask.
"But I have every reason to suppose——"
"Cavalier, you may suppose just what you please. I am outside the barrier now; ha, ha!" and she laughed.
"But I may take you prisoner yet."
"Scarcely," said she, with another of her ringing laughs, as her small jewelled hand held before me the blade of a short but sharp stiletto of polished steel.
"The devil!—bright eyes and a dagger!—'tis quite a tragedy this!"
"It may end as a comedy, if you are kind to me."
"Well," said I, "the hour is late; here is midnight tolling in the steeple of the great church—allow me to act properly as your cavalier, and I shall be delighted."
"Many thanks, señor," she replied, and took my proffered hand. My heart beat like lightning; my head became giddy. Was it possible that I could be alone—at midnight, too—with that beautiful being, half woman, half fairy? I knew not what to say, and the light pressure of her little hand on mine, sent every moment a thrill to my heart, but then the other lay on the haft of a dagger!......