Briefly, like a Chinese idol, she nodded her head in assent; a thrill seemed to pass over her wonderfully slender shape; yet she did not budge.
I became more venturesome from a sudden feeling as of fire rushing through my veins.
“You may be vowed to seclusion, beautiful bride of Heaven, but to-day the convent walls have released you, to-day you are of the world and the flesh, to-day you are mine!”
Thus I cried aloud, forgetting in my excitement that I was in a country where my mother tongue was only spoken and understood at the German legation.
In a moment it occurred to me: Did the mask know German?
To my astonishment, she gave an immediate sign of intelligence by gliding, silently as a shadow, another step in my direction, and her biasing eyes appeared to kindle with merriment. Had she a veil over her eyes? It almost looked so and this extraordinary measure of precaution challenged me the more strongly to overcome her reluctance to being known.
“Do you understand me?” I asked.
She nodded in the same brief, jerky manner as before.
“Do you know me?”
Similarly she answered by negative motions of the head. I stepped up close to her with the question: