第69章

Gradually it cleared away; and as the moon began to straggle out between the rifts in the clouds, the count saw something by her pale light that Ormiston saw not.That latter gentleman, standing with his back to the house of Leoline, and his face toward that of Ls Masque, did not observe the return of Sir Norman from St.Paul's, nor look after him as he rode away.But the count did both; and ten minutes after, when the rain had entirely ceased, and the moon and stars got the better of the clouds in their struggle for supremacy, he beheld La Masque flitting like a dark shadow in the same direction, and vanishing in at Leoline's door.The same instant, Ormiston started to go.

"The storm has entirely ceased," he said, stepping out, and with the profound air of one making a new discovery, "and we are likely to have fine weather for the remainder of the night - or rather, morning.Good night, count.""Farewell," said the count, as he and, his companion came out from the shadow of the archway, and turned to follow La Masque.

Ormiston, thinking the hour of waiting had elapsed, and feeling much more interested in the coming meeting than in Leoline or her visitors, paid very little attention to his two acquaintances.

He saw them, it is true, enter Leoline's house, but at the same instant, he took up his post at La Masque's doorway, and concentrated his whole attention on that piece of architecture.

Every moment seemed like a week now; and before he had stood at his post five minutes, he had worked himself up into a perfect fever of impatience.Sometimes he was inclined to knock and seek La Masque in her own home; but as often the fear of a chilling rebuke paralyzed his hand when he raised it.He was so sure she was within the house, that he never thought of looking for her elsewhere; and when, at the expiration of what seemed to him a century or two, but which in reality was about a quarter of an hour, there was a soft rustling of drapery behind him, and the sweetest of voices sounded in his ear, it fairly made him bound.

"Here again, Mr.Ormiston? Is this the fifth or sixth time I've found you in this place to-night?""La Masque!" he cried, between joy and surprise."But surely, Iwas not totally unexpected this time?"

"Perhaps not.You are waiting here for me to redeem my promise, I suppose?""Can you doubt it? Since I knew you first, I have desired this hour as the blind desire sight.""Ah! And you will find it as sweet to look back upon as you have to look forward to," said La Masque, derisively."If you are wise for yourself, Mr.Ormiston, you will pause here, and give me back that fatal word.""Never, madame! And surely you will not be so pitilessly cruel as to draw back, now?""No, I have promised, and I shall perform; and let the consequences be what they may, they will rest upon your own head.

You have been warned, and you still insist.""I still insist!"

Then let us move farther over here into the shadow of the houses;this moonlight is so dreadfully bright!"

They moved on into the deep shadow, and there was a pulse throbbing in Ormiston's head and heart like the beating of a muffed drum.They paused and faced each other silently.

"Quick, madame!" cried Ormiston, hoarsely, his whole face flushed wildly.

His strange companion lifted her hand as if to remove the mask, and he saw that it shook like an aspen.She made one motion as though about to lift it, and then recoiled, as if from herself, in a sort of horror.

"My God! What is this man urging me to do? How can I ever fulfill that fatal promise?""Madame, you torture me!" said Ormiston, whose face showed what he felt."You must keep your promise; so do not drive me wild waiting.Let me - "He took a step toward her, as if to lift the mask himself, but she held out both arms to keep him off.

"No, no, no! Come not near me, Malcolm Ormiston! Fated man, since you will rush on your doom, Look! and let the sight blast you, if it will!"She unfastened her mask, raised it, and with it the profusion of long, sweeping black hair.

Ormiston did look - in much the same way, perhaps, that Zulinka looked at the Veiled Prophet.The next moment there was a terrible cry, and he fell headlong with a crash, as if a bullet had whined through his hart.