Cruel as the grave
"Yes, it _is_ a skeleton! Oh, this is too horrible!" gasped Joe,
shrinking up against the wall. And his female companion clung close to
him.
Meanwhile the "skeleton" stalked towards them.
We, reader, have seen the figure before. But so distinctly was the
skeleton of the human body painted in white upon that tight-fitting
black suit, that the illusion was perfect; and the wonder was not great
that the two poor ignorant servants trembled and gasped, and shrank
back.
"Why, if you were not afraid of the Devil, why should you shrink from
Death?" demanded the stranger:
"Grinning horribly a ghastly smile."
"I--was not--afraid; only it gives one such a turn!" replied Joe, with
chattering teeth.
"Then direct me to a dressing-room," ordered the stranger.
"But--are you--a gentleman's skeleton, or a lady's?" gasped Joe.
"I am neither. I am Death," curtly replied the stranger.
"Lord save us!" ejaculated Miss Tabby.
"Are you going to direct me to a dressing-room?"
"Yes, sure, as soon as I know what sort of a one you want. Are you a
gentleman's death, or a lady's?" faltered Joe, who could by no means
command his nerves.
"I am a lady's death!" replied the stranger, in a tone so grim that Miss
Tabby ejaculated:
"Heaven have mercy on us!"
Joe was about to direct the stranger to the ladies' dressing-rooms, when
his attention was suddenly diverted by the arrival of a crowd of
"knights," "Indians," "Welsh bards," "grisettes," "Greek slaves,"
et caetera, who demanded immediate service. The usher divided them according
to their sexes, and then noticed that the ghastly figure of "Death"
joined the gentlemen's party and accompanied them to their
dressing-room.
CHAPTER XVI.
ON THE WATCH.
False--from the head's crown to the foot's sole--false!
To think I never knew it until now,
Nor saw thro' him e'en when I saw him smile;
Saw that he meant this when he wed me,
When he caressed me! Yes, when he kissed my lips!--BROWNING
While this busy scene was being enacted below stairs, equally important,
if quieter dramas were being performed in the dressing-rooms up-stairs,
where the maskers were putting the last finishing touches to their
toilets.
In Mrs. Berners' dressing-room, Sybil, the queen of the festival, was
alone. Mr. Berners, who had assumed the character of "Harold, the last
of the Saxon Kings," had already completed his toilet and gone below
stairs, as he said, to take his place near the door to welcome his
guests as they should enter the drawing-room.
So Sybil was alone in her apartment. She also had just completed her
toilet, and now she stood before the large cheval mirror, surveying the
reflection of her figure from its clear surface, where it looked like a
framed picture.
Ah! far the most beautiful, far the most terrible figure in the
pageantry of the evening would be that of Sybil Berners! She had chosen
for her character the unprecedented part of the impersonation of the
Spirit of Fire. It suited well with her whole nature. She was a true
child of the sun--a fervent Fire Worshipper, if ever there lived one in
a Christian community. And now her costume was but the outward sign of
the inward fervor. Let me try to describe it.
She wore a robe of chameleon-hued satin, so artfully woven, with a warp
of golden thread and woof of crimson silk, that, as with every change of
light and shade, it glowed in ruby coals or blazed in amber flames; and
as with every motion of her graceful form it flashed around her, she
seemed to be clothed in living fire.
She wore a burning garnet, like a live coal on her bosom; and on her
brow a golden circle set with garnets, and having golden points set with
amber and topaz, and tipped with diamonds, and flashing like little
tongues of flame from a circle of fire.
Her mask was of golden gauze, perfectly moulded to her beautiful
features.
Never had Sybil Berners worn a dress so perfectly expressive of herself
as this, for she herself was Fire!
She had confided the secret of her costume to no one but to her husband,
not even to her guest--courtesy did not oblige her to do that; and in
order to preserve the secret inviolate, she had on this occasion dressed
herself without the assistance of her maid.
Being now ready to join the maskers, she slipped a large dark cloak
over her dress, opened the chamber door cautiously to see that the hall
was clear, found it to be so at that moment, and slipped out, glided
down the front stairs, elbowing crowds that were pushing up, and so
passed down to the lower hall, and stole through the multitude that
filled it up, back to the rear door. She passed around the outside of
the house to the front door, and entered with the swarm of new arrivals.
Would the ushers, Joe Joy and Miss Tabby, recognize their lady? That was
the question, and that was the test. She passed up with the rest,
letting her black cloak slip down to reveal her robe and crown of fire.
"Heaven save us! who comes here? It must be a mermaid from the 'lake
that burneth with fire and brimstone for ever and ever.' It's a she,
anyhow, and belongs to your department, thanks be to goodness!"
whispered Joseph Joy, to his companion in duty.
"This way, ma'am, if you please. Delia, pass this lady on to the ladies'
dressing-room," said unconscious Miss Tabby, courtesying and pointing.
And Sybil passed on, smiling to herself to perceive that not even her
old family domestics had recognized her face or form. So, keeping up her
stratagem of being one of the masked guests of the ball, she entered the
large chamber that had been chosen for the ladies' dressing-room and
fitted up with a dozen small dressing-tables and mirrors. Her entrance
created a sensation even among that fantastic crowd, each individual of
which was a wonder in him or herself.
"Oh! look there!" simultaneously whispered twenty masks to forty others,
as they caught sight of her.
"What a marvellous dress! What a splendid creature!"
"What a dazzling costume!"
"She throws us all in the shade."
These were a few of the impulsive ejaculations of admiration that were
passed from one to another, as Sybil flashed through the throng and
stopped before a dressing-table, where she made a pretence of putting a
few finishing touches to her dress.
Then, certain of not having been recognized, and wishing to escape such
close scrutiny in such confined quarters, she joined a group of ladies
who, having completed their own toilets, were just then passing out of
the chamber door into the upper hall, where they were met by their
gentleman escorts.
There was no one to meet Sybil; a circumstance that was not of much
importance, since there were one or two other ladies of the same party,
who, having no escort of their own, had to follow in the wake of others.
Nor would Sybil have minded this at all, had she not looked over the
balustrades and seen issuing from the little passage leading from Mrs.
Blondelle's room, two figures--a gentleman and a lady. The gentleman she
instantly recognized as her husband, by his dress as "Harold, the last
of the Saxon Kings." The lady she felt certain must be Rosa Blondelle,
as she wore the dress of "Edith the Fair," the favorite of the King.
For an instant Sybil reeled under this shock; and then she recovered
herself, re-gathered all her strength, and sternly crushing down all
this weakness, passed on as a guest among her guests to the door of the
drawing-room.
There they were received by a very venerable mask with a long and
flowing white beard, and dressed in a gold 'broidered black velvet
tunic, white hose, white gauntlets, and red buskins, and holding a long
brazen wand. This was no other than "Father Abe," the oldest man on the
manor, personating my "Lord Polonius," that prince of gentlemen ushers
and gold sticks in waiting.
While Sybil stood behind the group, she saw her husband and her rival
precede every one to the door.
"Names, if you please, sir?" inquired the usher with a bow.
"Harold the Saxon and Edith the Fair," answered Mr. Berners in a low
voice.
"Mr. Harry Claxton and Miss Esther Clair!" shouted poor old Abe at the
top of his voice as he opened wider the door to admit his unknown master
and the lady.
"Name, sir, please?" he continued, addressing the next party.
"Rob Roy Macgregor."
"Mr. Robert McCracker!" shouted the usher, passing in this mask, and
passing immediately to the next with, "Name, missus, please?"
"Fenella the dumb girl," murmured a very shy little maiden, whom the
usher immediately announced as "An Ell of a dumb girl!" And so on, he
went, making the most absurd as well as the most awful blunders with
ladies' and gentlemen's names, as announcing the "Grand Turk" as Miss
Ann Burke; for which last mistake the poor old man was not much to
blame, as the subject was but a little fellow in a turban and long gown,
whom Polonius naturally took to be a woman in a rather fantastic female
dress. But when he thundered forth a "Musketeer" as a "mosquito," and a
"Crusader" as a "curiosity," and "Joan of Arc" as "Master Johnny Dark,"
he was quite unpardonable.
Meanwhile Sybil had entered the room, which was blazing with light and
resounding with music. As the guests were now nearly all assembled, the
gentlemen selected partners and opened the ball with a grand promenade
to the music of the grand march in "Faust."
Introductions are of course unnecessary at private masquerades, as well
as impracticable at all such festivals; so when the ghastly mask "Death"
came up and offered his skeleton arm to Sybil for the promenade, she
unhesitatingly accepted it, supposing him all the while to be one of her
invited guests.
But in joining the promenaders, he entered the circle at a point
immediately in the rear of Harold the Saxon, and Edith the Fair. Death
kept his eye on the two, and speaking in a low voice, inquired of his
companion;
"Beautiful mask! though we may not yet discover ourselves to each other,
yet we are at liberty to form a guess of the identity of our friends
here?"
"Yes," answered Sybil, in a low voice. She scarcely understood what she
had been asked, or what she had answered; for her whole attention was
absorbed in watching her husband and her rival, who were walking
immediately before her--so close, yet so unconscious of her presence; so
near in person, yet so far in spirit!
"--As, for instance, lovely mask," continued Death, "I think I know this
'Fair Edith' as the beautiful blonde who is staying here with our
hostess. Am I not right?"
"Yes," answered Sybil, in the same absent and unconscious manner; for
she really had not the slightest idea of what he had been talking about,
but only a half-conscious instinct that the best and shortest, as well
as the most courteous, way, in which to be rid of him was to agree with
all he said. Her whole attention was still painfully absorbed by the
pair before her.
"But as for the gentleman, Saxon Harold, I do not recognize him at all!
However, he seems to be quite devoted to his fair Edith, as is most
natural! Fair Edith was his best beloved! best beloved? Yes, beloved far
beyond his queen!"
Sybil knew what he was saying now! She was listening to him with her
ears, while she was watching the pair before her with her eyes.
"When Harold's dead body was found on the battle-field, it was not the
queen, but Fair Edith, who was sent for to identify it, and to her it
was given," continued the stranger.
A half-suppressed cry broke from Sybil's lips.
"What is the matter? Are they treading on your feet?" inquired the mask.
"_Some_ one is treading on me," murmured Sybil, with a sad double
meaning.