"I would rather not,--it might be embarra.s.sing for both of us." He laughed uneasily. "Do you remember that little Andersen girl we met on a steamer the year we went to St. Petersburg?"

He felt Angelescu's arm stiffen under his, and had the light been stronger, he would have seen the bronzed cheek pale. They had reached Mirko's room and entered, closing the door after them.

CHAPTER V

As Ragna entered the pension Astrid came out of the drawing-room to meet her.

"Oh, Ragna, where on earth have you been all day? We have been so anxious! We were afraid you were lost or kidnapped or something. And the dominoes have come, do come and try yours on!"

"The dominoes?" asked Ragna dully.

"Why Ragna Andersen! The dominoes for the _veglione_!" She turned and looked at Ragna attentively as they pa.s.sed under a swinging lamp in the pa.s.sage.

"Ragna, you are ill!" she cried, "you are as white as a sheet! What has happened?"

"Nothing," said Ragna, "I got caught in the carnival crowd and pushed about--that's all, and I am tired out."

"Well, in the name of common sense, what made you stay out all day when you knew we were going to the _veglione_ to-night? I believe you won't be able to go at all!"

"Oh, yes I shall," said Ragna, making a desperate effort to pull herself together--no one must know, no one guess her secret! "Astrid, do be an angel--if I rest quietly for two or three hours I shall be as fit as ever--do explain it to your mother and Hagerup, and have some dinner sent me in my room. I want to lie down, and I won't have time if I have to dress for dinner. Do now, there's a dear!"

"Very well," a.s.sented Astrid, "you do look done up, you poor thing!"

But she shook her head as she turned away from Ragna's door. "I don't like this business," she said to herself; "there's something wrong, she's not a bit like her old self!" She was thinking of Ragna's calm a.s.surance and self-sufficiency in Christiania, so far removed from her present almost apologetic manner.

Ragna, alone at last, turned the key in the door; she swept to the floor the black domino laid on her bed, and flinging herself face-downward among the pillows, writhed in a frenzy of grief and shame, the fruit of long hours of suppression. It seemed to her that her very soul must be contaminated. "Oh, fool! Oh, blind fool that I was!" she moaned, and strained her arms till shoulder and elbow cracked. Suddenly she rose, and marching over to the dressing-table, gazed long and searchingly at herself in the gla.s.s. The redness and puffiness of her eyelids had disappeared during the long drive, but there were dark purple circles under the eyes, she was terribly pale and her mouth and features generally, had a hard, drawn look. "Fool!" she cried again and burying her face in her hands, began to weep. It did not last long however, she soon dashed the tears away, angrily. "It's no use crying over spilt milk!" With a sort of rage she tore off her clothes, trampling them on the floor,--were they not witnesses, accomplices almost? Then she washed, and it seemed to her that she hated her beautiful white body; all that she was, all that she had become, sickened her.

She slipped on a dressing gown and lay down on the bed, quite motionless, staring miserably into s.p.a.ce. Nothing was left to her, nothing! If only Mirko had not been so horrible--afterwards! She shuddered and ground her teeth. Oh, the shame of it, the bitter humiliation! Her eyes burned, her throat was dry as though seared by a hot iron, her head throbbed painfully.

Presently the maid knocked and when Ragna had unlocked the door, brought in a tray with dinner, which she set on the table. She surveyed Ragna with sympathy and curiosity.

"Does not the Signorina feel well? What a pity, the night of the _veglione_!"

"Thank you, Rosa, I am a little tired; I daresay I shall be quite rested in an hour or so," answered Ragna bitterly.

"Shall I not bring the Signorina a gla.s.s of Marsala?"

"No, thank you," said Ragna, but the maid had already flown off and returned very quickly with a gla.s.s of the topaz-coloured wine.

"Here, drink this, Signorina, it is very good when one is tired, it will warm you up!" She was not to be denied, and to please her Ragna drained the little gla.s.s. Rosa was right, she felt it warming her veins; a tinge of colour crept to her cheeks, and she managed to swallow a little food.

Then she lay down again, and what with the wine and the fatigue fell asleep, and slept until Rosa returned to help her dress.

Rosa, as she watched the Signorina's purple shadowed eyes, said to herself.

"_Macche fatigue!_ Displeasure of love, that is what it is!" She prided herself on her perspicacity where affairs of the heart were concerned, and sighed deeply to show her sympathy.

Ragna stood apathetically while the maid hooked up her bodice. She wore a simple white frock, very youthful and girlish, and the low neck and short sleeves displayed her pretty shoulders and rounded, slender arms to advantage.

She had thought with pleasure of Mirko's seeing her in it, for she had told him by what sign to recognise her, and he was to have come masked to the ball to dance with her.

"The Signorina lacks but the veil to be a bride!" said Rosa admiringly.

Ragna shuddered and grew paler than before, if that were possible.

"The Signorina is beautiful, as she is, but if she will take my advice, she should put on a little rouge, she is too pale."

Ragna looked at herself in the mirror,--she was heavy eyed and white, far too white. The virginal whiteness of her frock, the pure pale face and pale gold hair seemed a pitiful mockery to her. She was glad when Rosa laid the black domino about her shoulders though it made her face look ghastly.

There was a sound of voices and laughter in the pa.s.sage, and Ragna quickly s.n.a.t.c.hed up her black mask and adjusted it as Astrid and Estelle entered the room.

"Ready, Ragna?"

"Yes," she answered, bending for Rosa to draw the domino hood over her head and fasten it with a pin.

Estelle turned herself about before the cheval-gla.s.s; her green domino, trimmed with black lace, was too short for her, and showed a good three inches of grey skirt at the hem; it was too full and made awkward bunchy folds about her and she wore a green mask with a frill of black lace, which fluttered as she breathed through her mouth,--however, she was quite satisfied with her appearance.

Astrid wore her light blue domino with coquettish grace and the small white loup hardly disguised her features; she had not yet pulled up the hood, and her fair hair curled prettily over her small head. Ragna also wore a _loup_, a black velvet one: she wished now that she had chosen a mask like Estelle's--anything to hide her, for her chin would quiver in spite of all her efforts.

Fru Bjork followed the girls into the room, very imposing in heliotrope, and grumbling at the necessity of wearing a mask.

"So hot! So stuffy! I can't breathe now, and I imagine what it will be in that place!" She was already fanning herself vigorously. "I'm quite as excited as you girls! Dear me, I hope it will be all just right--I should be more comfortable though, I admit, if we had a gentleman with us."

"You might have asked the man with the striped trousers, Mother,--I should think those stripes would carry him through anything!"

"Why should you make fun of the poor man?" asked Estelle. "I am sure he has been most polite. He has taken a great deal of trouble in inquiring about singing lessons for me, and he sings so sweetly himself. Didn't you like that song of his last evening about some '_Paese lontano dal mar_'?"

"He has a good voice," said Ragna.

"But his trousers drown it!" laughed Astrid. "Come on, all of you, it is time to start!"

Fru Bjork led the way, burly in her domino, Estelle after her, and the other two followed, Astrid keeping up a gay chatter which saved Ragna the effort of conversation. They packed themselves into the waiting carriage, and in a few minutes alighted at the Costanzi.

It was early as yet and the crowd was thin, but more people were arriving all the time, some in fancy costume, but most of them in dominoes. Fru Bjork marshalled her party to the box she had taken,--it was in the second tier, near the stage, and there was a table in it as they were to have supper served from Aragno's. Estelle and Astrid pressed to the front of the box, and Ragna sat down on the little bench at the side, behind Astrid.

"Why, Ragna, child," said Fru Bjork, "don't you want to see what's going on, now you're here?"

"I am still a little tired," she answered, "and there is not much to see now, by and by it will be more interesting."

Astrid turned her head.

"What on earth made you such a fool as to tire yourself all out in the crowd to-day?"

Ragna thought she detected a note of suspicion in the question and a wave of terror swept over her,--suppose someone were to guess? She made an effort and answered jestingly, forcing the note. Fortunately the attention of the party was soon taken up with the scene below, leaving her to her own thoughts. The boxes were rapidly filling, and on the floor below a variegated crowd surged to and fro. Near the entrance a number of young men in evening dress and without masks, scanned curiously the entering dominoes, sometimes accosting them, and sometimes being accosted in the conventional falsetto. Marguerites, Columbines, peasant-girls, flower-girls abounded, and the air seemed thick with Pierrots. All the women, without exception, were masked, and it gave them an a.s.surance, not to say audacity of manner very different from that of ordinary occasions. They were daring, _provocantes_, insolent even, and the young men enjoyed it hugely. A babel of voices and laughter rose from the throng, almost drowning the orchestra, but as yet all was orderly and quiet. Women in dominoes walked about in pairs, stopping to talk to men, often separating, and joining other groups. It was a human kaleidescope.