"Ye are very impatient to find him," answered Marius. "And how may we know him in this throng?" They stepped aside into an alcove set with card-tables, and Susannah gazed away from her companion and down the crowded ballroom. "We came here to find him," she answered. "I told you that, Marius, when I desired you to bring me. You know that I must see him--that I endeavoured to gain speech with him last night. To-day----" "But you have confided no further in me." Miss Chressham replied sharply, almost angrily. "Marius, you are quite unreasonable. You know that I want to speak with my lord on a matter not my own. I have a message for him, and one not easily put on paper." "And you are unreasonable," retorted Marius gloomily, "to suppose we could ever find one in particular in this." He indicated the crowd that passed and repassed before them. Everyone was disguised in a fantastic, ridiculous, or gorgeous fashion, and everyone was masked. Of all the habits there he could only identify one--the scarlet and orange domino Lady Lyndwood had told him she would wear. Miss Chressham sighed impatiently. She, like her cousin, wore a simple black cloak and mask. "If I but knew what he was wearing," she said. Marius blushed under his vizard. The Countess might know at least the colour of her husband's domino; but he would not admit to Miss Chressham that Lady Lyndwood had accompanied her invitation with a description of her dress, so he stood silent, staring resentfully at the yellow and red domino. "I suppose they will unmask at midnight," continued Miss Chressham, "and if Rose be still here----" From the musicians' gallery came the sound of fiddles. The great room slowly cleared; the precise and animating music of a gavotte came sharply across the laughter and talk. Four couples stood up to dance; the rest moved aside to watch them. One of the dancers was the mask in red and yellow. It seemed to Marius that she looked straight across the ballroom at him, and that she knew him--at least, her head seemed always turned in his direction. At the commencement of the second figure a lady in white detached herself from the spectators and approached towards the two by the empty card-tables. She passed Marius in a quick, agitated manner, and caught Miss Chressham by the hand. "Susannah," she whispered, and pulled off her mask. "Selina!" The mask was replaced. Both ladies checked themselves and looked at Marius. "My cousin," murmured Susannah. "You remember him?" Miss Boyle curtsied. "I knew you both; you are very poorly disguised." She forced a laugh. "Are you not dancing, Captain Lyndwood?" "I am not in much of a holiday mood, madam," he replied. He was so watchful of Susannah, so sensitive to every change in her tone and manner, that he was perfectly aware that she wished him to leave her alone with Miss Boyle. He made some excuse and moved away. Selina Boyle sank on to one of the slender chairs by the card-table.