CHAPTER II

MASKS AND MASKERS


Moors and Juliets and Circassian slaves and Knights at Arms were
fast emerging from lift or cloak room, and confronting each other
through their masks in sheepish defiance and curiosity. Adventurous
spirits were circulating. Voices, lowered and guarded, began to
engage in nervous, tittering banter.... Laughter, belatedly
smothered, flared to betrayals....

The orchestra was playing a Viennese waltz and couple after couple
slipped out upon the floor.

Lounging against the wall, Ryder glowered mockingly through his mask
holes at the motley. It was so exactly as he had foreseen. He was
bored--and he was going to be more bored. He was jostled--and he was
going to be more jostled. He was hot--and he was going to be hotter.

Where in the world was Jinny Jeffries? He deserved, he felt,
exhilaratingly kind treatment to compensate him for this insanity.
He gazed about, and encountering a plump shepherdess ogling him he
stepped hastily behind a palm.

He fairly stepped upon a very small person in black. A phantom-like