"Ah, thank you. You have no idea, I suppose, what her dress is to be?" "Kitty gave me to understand, very quietly, that she would wear a rose-colored domino." "There is a rose-colored domino just entering; do you imagine that is the fair _fiancée?_" "Very possibly," said my companion. "She is going to dance. Is that Phil with her?" Phil at this moment asked my partner to be his vis-à-vis, so we were again drawn into the dance. By this time, half the people in the room thought I was Miss Churchill, and addressed me accordingly. In one of the pauses of the quadrille, as some one calling me by that name had turned away, the black domino, who stood a little behind me on my left, leaned forward and whispered: "You cannot deceive _me;_ it was not Miss Churchill who was to have a blue ribbon on her tassel." I started; what intrigue was that Kitty about? The dance was over; Phil and his partner left the room and turned toward the piazza. "Shall we go into the fresh air?" said my companion, following them with his eyes. I took his arm, and we went on the piazza. The soft light of the colored lamps, the mellow music floating out to us, the cool air in our faces--I met with a gasp of relief and pleasure. Leading me to a seat rather more secluded than the others, my companion threw himself on the sofa beside me, and exclaimed, removing his mask: "This is so unsupportably warm, I must take it off for a moment's relief, as I believe you know me. Well! Miss Josephine, how do you think our masquerade has succeeded? Are you satisfied with the result?" "Perfectly," I said, feeling very guilty, and leaning back further into the shade. "It has been a delightful affair." He rested his brow thoughtfully and sadly on his hand for a moment. "You are tired," I said. "Miserably tired." It was well for me he did not require me to talk; I should have betrayed myself if I had attempted it. His eyes were riveted on the pair who stood a few yards from us. Phil, bending down, was whispering in low tones to his companion in the pink domino. There was something in her attitude, as she listened with half-bent head, that I could not fail to recognize, and from below the edge of her domino, I caught a glimpse of yellow brocade. There was but one to whom Phil could talk in those earnest tones--but one to whom he could tell that tale. Josephine, I saw, must have gone upstairs, and put on the domino over her first dress, the more to puzzle some of her partners. Kitty had in some way become acquainted with her intention, and seized upon it to further the deception that she saw prevailed in regard to me. There was very little that escaped that clever jade. I wished, with a sigh, that she were less unscrupulous. In a few moments, the cousins passed where we sat, nearly concealed from them, walking slowly and talking earnestly. "You cannot ask me to endure it longer; this suspense is misery," he said, with a quiver in his manly voice.