“Let me finish. There are many grey dominoes here—true, but look well at them, and you will see that their material is velvet, silk, or something equally costly, whereas hers is modest serge trimmed with silver cord, the simplest costume of the whole ball. Her mask, too, is of grey silk.”
“What made her venture here to-night.”
“She wishes to see the Czarina.”
“And she may be having her wish at this moment.”
“Hardly. She must wait till the supper-hour comes.”
“Why so?”
“O silly! Aren’t all the ladies masked? No one knows who’s who till the general unmasking at supper-time.”
“And when she sees the Czarina—what then?”
“She’s bent on giving her a letter. It’s our business to see that it be not given, and the sooner we set about our work the better.”
Thus advised, the three men rose and moved off, Izak leading the way, bent, as his words showed, on preventing some girl or woman from giving a letter to the Empress; but how was it possible to stop its presentation without the employment of questionable methods?