"I am at your service, Mrs. Wilson," he said with cold sternness.
"Well, we will go then. Unless, that is, you are dancing, Mr. Wynne. I see that you have a favor."
He glanced down at the grotesque little mask, dangling by its red ribbon. With unbroken gravity he detached and laid it upon the table in silence. He would have given much to hide it in his pocket, since it came from Berenice; but even as he put it down a bevy of girls swept up for favors, and one of them bore it away.
"He has abandoned his opportunity," Mrs. Staggchase observed. "The favor goes to Mr. Stanford."
The girl who had taken up the mask was indeed pinning it to the coat of that gentleman, with whom she quickly danced away. Maurice felt his heart grow hot, but he looked at his cousin with face hard and determined.
"It was never mine," he said, "except by the chance of a misunderstanding."
A maid now came forward with a black domino, which Mrs. Wilson slipped into gracefully, drawing up her glittering draperies. The big diamond on the toe of her slipper glowed fantastically, peeping from beneath the penitential robe.
"Hallo," Dr. Wilson exclaimed, coming up at this moment, "what's in the wind now? Is this turning into a masquerade?"
"Your wife is about to retire from the world," Mrs. Hubbard answered, laughing.
"With a man," Mrs. Staggchase added, her eyes shining on her cousin.
Wynne stabbed her with a glance of indignation.
"No, with a priest," corrected Mrs. Wilson, adjusting her domino about her face.
"Elsie, how devilishly fond you are of making a fool of yourself," Dr. Wilson observed jovially. "Well, good-night."
Mrs. Wilson swept him a profound courtesy, with her hands crossed on her bosom.
"My lord and master, good-night. Ladies, remember that it will be Lent in ten minutes."
She took Wynne's arm, and together the black-robed figures went down the length of the room. The music had for the moment stopped, and it seemed to Maurice as if his presence had brought a chill to the whole gay scene. He was inwardly raging, angry to have been used by Mrs. Wilson as an actor in her outrageous comedy, furious with Berenice for her part in the play, full of rage against the men who stood around grinning and laughing at the whole performance. Most of all, he assured himself, he was righteously indignant at the trifling with sacred things. He looked neither to the left nor to the right, but with Mrs. Wilson sweeping along by his side he strode toward the door.