E-text prepared by Al Haines Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 17390-h.htm or 17390-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/3/9/17390/17390-h/17390-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/3/9/17390/17390-h.zip) HEARTS AND MASKS by HAROLD MACGRATH Author of The Puppet Crown, The Grey Cloak, The Man on the Box With Illustrations by Harrison Fisher [Frontispiece: Five people dressed for costume ball, four sitting, one standing.] New York Grosset & Dunlap Publishers Copyright 1905 The Bobbs-Merrill Company TO MY WIFE List of Illustrations Five people dressed for costume ball, four sitting, one standing . . . (Frontispiece) The handsomest girl I had set eyes upon in a month of moons. "This is what I want. How much?" I inquired. Turning, I beheld an exquisite Columbine. I led her over to a secluded nook. We sat down. And there we sat, calmly munching the apples. "Madame, will you do me the honor to raise your mask?" We watched the girl as she bathed and bandaged the wounded arm. With a contented sigh she rested her blue-slippered feet on the brass fender. HEARTS AND MASKS I It all depends upon the manner of your entrance to the Castle of Adventure. One does not have to scale its beetling parapets or assault its scarps and frowning bastions; neither is one obliged to force with clamor and blaring trumpets and glittering gorgets the drawbridge and portcullis. Rather the pathway lies through one of those many little doors, obscure, yet easily accessible, latchless and boltless, to which the average person gives no particular attention, and yet which invariably lead to the very heart of this Castle Delectable. The whimsical chatelaine of this enchanted keep is a shy goddess. Circumspection has no part in her affairs, nor caution, nor practicality; nor does her eye linger upon the dullard and the blunderer. Imagination solves the secret riddle, and wit is the guide that leads the seeker through the winding, bewildering labyrinths. And there is something in being idle, too! If I had not gone idly into Mouquin's cellar for dinner that night, I should have missed the most engaging adventure that ever fell to my lot. It is second nature for me to be guided by impulse rather than by reason; reason is always so square-toed and impulse is always so alluring. You will find that nearly all the great captains were and are creatures of impulse; nothing brilliant is ever achieved by calculation. All this is not to say that I am a great captain; it is offered only to inform you that I am often impulsive.