CHAPTER V.
THE MASKERS
"For Ellinor (her Christian name was Ellinor) Had twenty-seven different kinds of hell in her."
--RICHARD HOVEY.
It lacked little of the eleventh hour when the football player reachedthe ballroom--last comer to the revels. A bandage round his head and arubber noseguard, which also hid his mouth, served for a mask, eked outby crisscrossed strips of courtplaster. One arm was in a sling--forstage purposes only.
As he limped through the door, Diogenes hurried to meet him, held up hislantern, peered hopefully into the battered face and shook hisdisappointed head. "Stung again!" muttered Diogenes.
Jeff lisped in numbers which fully verified the cynic's misgiving."7--11--4--11--44!" he announced jerkily. This was strictly in characterand also excused him from entangling talk, leaving him free to searchthe whirl of dancers.
A bulky Rough Rider volunteered his help. He fixed a gleaming eyeglasson his nose and politely offered Jeff a Big Stick by way of a crutch."Hit the line hard!" he barked. He bit the words off with aprize-bulldog effect. He had fine teeth.
Jeff waved him off. "16--2--1!" he proclaimed controversially. He felthis spirits sinking, with a growing doubt of his ability to identify theOnly One, and was impatient of interruption. He kept his slow andwatchful way down the floor.
Topsy broke away from her partner and stopped Jeff's crippled progress.Her short hair, braided to a dozen tight and tiny pigtails, bristledaway in all directions.
"Laws, young marsta', you suhtenly does look puny!" she said. Then sheclutched at her knee. "_Aie!_" she tittered, as a loose red stockingdropped flappingly to her ankle. Pray do not be shocked. The effect wasstartling; but a black stocking, decorously tight and smooth, wasbeneath the red one. Jeff's mathematics were not equal to the strain ofadequate comment. Topsy dived to the rescue. "Got a string?" shegiggled, as she hitched the fallen stocking back to place. "I cain't fixthis good nohow!"
Jeff jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Man over there with aneyeglass cord--maybe you can get that. What makes you act so?" He lookedcold disapproval; nevertheless, he looked.
Topsy hung her head, still clutching at the stocking-top. "Dunno. Ispec's it's 'cause Ise so wicked!" Finger in mouth, she looked afterJeff as he hobbled away.
A slender witch bounced from a chair and barred his way with a broom.Her eyes were brimming sorcery; her lips looked saucy challenge; sheleaned close for a whispered word in his ear: "How would you like totackle me?"
Poor Jeff! "10, 2--10, 2!" he promised huskily. Yet he ducked beneaththe broom.
"But," said the little witch plaintively, "you're going away!" Shedropped her broom and wept.
"8, 2--8, 2--8, 2!" said Jeff, almost in tears himself, and again fellback upon English. "Mere figures or mere words can't tell you how much Ihate to; but I've got to follow the ball. I'm looking for a fellow."
"If he--if he doesn't love you," sobbed the stricken witch, "then you'llcome back to me--won't you? I love a liar!"
"To the very stake!" vowed Jeff. Such heroic, if conditional, constancywas not to go unrewarded. A couple detached themselves from the dancers,threaded their way to a corner of the long hall and stood there in deepconverse. Jeff quickened pulse and pace--for one was a Red Devil and theother wore the soft gray costume of a Friend. She was tall, thisQuakeress, and the hobnobbing devil was of Jeff's own height. Jeff beganto hope for a goal.
Briskly limping, he came to this engrossed couple and laid a friendlyhand on the devil's shoulder.
"Brother," he said cordially, "will you please go to--home?"
The devil recoiled an astonished step.
"What? What!! Show me your license!"
"Twenty-three!--Please!--there's a good devil--23! I'm the right guardfor this lady, I hope. Oh, please to go home!"
The devil took this request in very bad part.
"Go back fifteen yards for offside play and take a drop kick atyourself!" he suggested sourly.
A burly policeman, plainly conscious of fitting his uniform, paused forwarning.
"No scrappin' now! Don't start nothin' or I'll run in the t'ree avyees!" he said, and sauntered on, twirling a graceful nightstick.
"Thee is a local man, judging from thy letters," said the Quaker lady,to relieve the somewhat strained situation. "What do they stand for? E.P.? Oh, yes--El Paso, of course!"
"I saw you first!" said the Red Devil. "And with your disposition youwould naturally find me more suitable. Make your choice of gridirons!Send him back to the side lines! Disqualify him for interference!"
"Don't be hurried into a decision," said Jeff. "Eternity is a goodwhile. Before it's over I'm going to be a--well, something more than afootballer. Golf, maybe--or tiddledywinks."
The Quakeress glanced attentively from one to the other.
"Doubtless he will do his best to forward Thy Majesty's interests," sheinterposed. "Why not give him a chance?"
The devil shrugged his shoulders. "I always prefer to give this branchof work my personal attention," he said stiffly.
"A specialty of thine?" mocked the girl.
The devil bowed sulkily.
"My heart is in it. Of course, if you prefer the bungling of a novice,there is no more to be said."
"Thy Majesty's manners have never been questioned," murmured theQuakeress, bowing dismissal. "So kind of you!"
The devil bowed deeply and turned, pausing to hurl a gloomy prophecyover his shoulder. "See you later!" he said, and stalked away with anill grace.
Pigskin hero and girl Friend, left alone, eyed each other with mutualapprehension. The girl Friend was first to recover speech. Her red lipswere prim below her vizor, her eyes downcast to hide their dancinglights. Timidly she spread out fanwise the dove color of her sobercostume.
"How does thee like my gray gown?"
"Not at all," said Jeff brutally. "You're no friend of mine, I hope."
A most un-Quakerlike dimple trembled to her chin, relieving the firmausterity of straight lips. Also, Jeff caught a glimpse of her eyesthrough the vizor. They were crinkling--and they were brown. Sheventured another tentative remark, and there was in it an undertonelingering, softly confidential.
"Is thee lame?"
"Not--very," said Jeff, and saw a faint color start to the unmaskedmoiety of the Quaker cheek. "Still, if I may have the next dance, Ishall be glad if you will sit it out with me." Painfully he raised thebeslinged arm in explanation. _Sobre las Olas_ throbbed out its wistfulcall; they set their thought to its haunting measure.
"By all means!" She took his undamaged arm. "Let us find chairs."
Now there were chairs to the left of them, chairs to the right of them,chairs vacant everywhere; but the gallant Six Hundred themselves werenot more heedless or undismayed than these two. Still, all the world didnot wonder. On the contrary, not even the anxious devil saw them afterthey passed behind a knot of would-be dancers who were striving todisentangle themselves. For, seeing traffic thus blocked, the policemanrushed to unsnarl the tangle. Magnificently he flourished his stick. Headjured them roughly: "Move on, yous! Move on!" Whereat, with oneimpulse, the tangle moved on the copper, swept over him, engulfed him,hustled him to the door and threw him out.
So screened, the chair-hunters vanished in far less than a psychologicalmoment: for Jeff, in obedience to a faint or fancied pressure on hisarm, dived through portieres into a small room set apart for such as hadthe heart to prefer cards or chess. The room was deserted now and therewas a broad window open to the night. Thus, thrice favored ofProvidence, they found themselves in the garden, chairless but cheerful.
A garden with one Eve is the perfect combination in a world awry.Muffled, the music and the sounds of the ballroom came faint and far tothem; star-made shadows danced at their feet. The girl paused,expectant; but it was the unexpected that happened. The nimble tonguewhich had done such faithful service for Mr. Bransford now failed himquite: left him struggling, dumb, inarticulate, help
less--tongue andhand alike forgetful of their cunning.
Be sure the maid had adroitly heard much of Mr. Bransford, his deeds andmisdeeds, during the tedious interval since their first meeting. Reporthad dwelt lovingly upon Mr. Bransford's eloquence at need. This awkwardsilence was a tribute of sincerity above question.
With difficulty Ellinor mastered a wild desire to ask where the cat hadgone. "Oh, come ye in peace here or come ye in war?" Such injudiciousquotation trembled on the tip of her tongue, but she suppressedit--barely in time. She felt herself growing nervous with the fear lestshe should be hurried into some all too luminous speech. And still Jeffstood there, lost, speechless, helpless, unready, a clumsy oaf, anobject of pity. Pity at last, or a kindred feeling, drove her to therescue. And, just as she had feared, she said, in her generous haste,far too much.
"I thought you were not coming?"
The inflection made a question of this statement. Also, by implication,it answered so many questions yet unworded that Jeff was able to use histongue again; but it was not the trusty tongue of yore--witness thiswooden speech:
"You mean you thought I said I wasn't coming--don't you? You knew Iwould come."
"Indeed? How should I know what you would do? I've only seen you once.Aren't you forgetting that?"
"Why else did you make up as a Friend then?"
"Oh! Oh, dear, these men! There's conceit for you! I chose my costumesolely to trap Mr. Bransford's eye? Is that it? Doubtless all mythoughts have centered on Mr. Bransford since I first saw him!"
"You know I didn't mean that, Miss Ellinor. I----"
"Miss Hoffman, if you please!"
"Miss Hoffman. Don't be mean to me. I've only got an hour----"
"An hour! Do you imagine for one second----Why, I mustn't stay here.This is really a farewell dance given in my honor. We go back East dayafter to-morrow. I must go in."
"Only one little hour. And I have come a long ways for my hour. Theytake their masks off at midnight--don't they? And of course I can't stayafter that. I want only just to ask you----"
"Why did you come then? Isn't it rather unusual to go uninvited to aball?"
"Why, I reckon you nearly know why I come, Miss Hoffman; but if you wantme to say precisely, ma'am----"
"I don't!"
"We'll keep that for a surprise, then. Another thing: I wanted to findout just where you live in New York. I forgot to ask you. And I couldn'tvery well go round asking folks after you're gone--could I? Of course Ididn't have any invitation--from Mr. Lake; but I thought, if he didn'tknow it, he wouldn't mind me just stepping in to get your address."
"Well, of all the assurance!" said Miss Ellinor. "Do you intend tostart up a correspondence with me without even the formality of askingmy consent?"
"Why, Miss Ellinor, ma'am, I thought----"
"Miss Hoffman, sir! Yes--and there's another thing. You said you had noinvitation--from Mr. Lake. Does that mean, by any chance, that I invitedyou?"
"You didn't say a word about my coming," said Jeff. He was a flusteredman, this poor Bransford, but he managed to put a slight stress upon theword "say."
Miss Ellinor--Miss Hoffman--caught this faint emphasis instantly.
"Oh, I didn't _say_ anything? I just looked an invitation, I suppose?"she stormed. "Melting eyes--and that sort of thing? Tears in them,maybe? Poor girl! Poor little child! It would be cruel to let her gohome without seeing me again. I will give her a little more happiness,poor thing, and write to her a while. Maybe it would be wiser, though,just to make a quarrel and break loose at once. She'll get over it in alittle while after she gets back to New York. Well! Upon my word!"
As she advanced these horrible suppositions, Miss Hoffman had marked outa short beat of garden path--five steps and a turn; five steps back andwhirl again--with, on the whole, a caged-tigress effect. With adouble-quick at each turn to keep his place at her elbow, Jeff, utterlyaghast at the damnable perversity of everything on earth, vainlyendeavored to make coordinate and stumbling remonstrance. As she stoppedfor breath, Jeff heard his own voice at last, propounding to the worldat large a stunned query as to whether the abode of lost spirits couldafford aught to excel the present situation. The remark struck him: hepaused to wonder what other things he had been saying.
Miss Ellinor walked her beat, vindictive. Her chin was at an angle ofcomplacency. She turned up the perky corners of an imaginary mustachewith an air, an exasperating little finger, separated from the others,pointing upward in hateful self-satisfaction. Her mouth wore a gratifiedmasculine smirk, visible even in the starlight; her gait was a leisuredand lordly strut; her hand waved airy pity. Jeff shrank back in horror.
"M-Miss Hoffman, I n-never d-dreamed----"
Miss Hoffman turned upon him swiftly.
"Never have I heard anything like it--never! You bring me out herewilly-nilly, and by way of entertainment you virtually accuse me ofthrowing myself at your head."
"I never!" said Jeff indignantly. "I didn't----"
Miss Hoffman faced him crouchingly and shook an indictment from herfingers.
"First, you imply that I enticed you to come; second, expecting you, Idressed to catch your eye; third, I was watching eagerly for you----"
"Come--I say now!" The baited and exasperated victim walked headlonginto the trap. "The first thing you did was to ask me if I was lame?Wasn't that question meant to find out who I was? When I answered,'Not--very,' didn't you know at once that it was me?"
"There! That proves exactly what I was just saying," raged the delightedtrapper. "You don't even deny it! You say in so many words that I havebeen courting you! I had to say something--didn't I? You wouldn't! Youwere limping, so I asked you if you were lame. What else could I havesaid? Did you want me to stand there like a stuffed Egyptian mummy?That's the thanks a girl gets for trying to help a great, awkward,blundering butter-fingers! Oh, if you could just see yourself! Theirresistible conqueror! Not altogether unprincipled though! You _are_capable of compunction. I'll give you credit for that. Alarmed at youreasy success, you try to spare me. It is noble of you--noble! You dragme out here, force a quarrel upon me----"
"Oh, by Jove now! Really!" Stung by the poignant injustice of crowdingevents, Jeff took the bit in his teeth and rushed to destruction."Really, you must see yourself that I couldn't drag you out here! I havenever been in that hall before. I didn't know the lay of the ground. Ididn't even know that little side room was there. I thought you pressedmy arm a little----" So the brainless colt, in the quicksands, floundersdeeper with each effort to extricate himself.
If Miss Hoffman had been angry before she was furious now.
"So _that's_ the way of it? Better and better! _I_ dragged _you_ out!Really, Mr. Bransford, I feel that I should take you back to yourchaperon at once. You might be compromised, you know!"
Goaded to desperation, he acted on this hint at once. He turned, withstiff and stilted speech:
"I will take you back to the window, Miss Hoffman. Then there is nothingfor me to do but go. I am sorry to have caused you even a moment'sannoyance. To-morrow you will see how you have twisted--I mean, howcompletely you have misinterpreted everything I have said. Perhaps someday you may forgive me. Here is the window. Good-night--good-by!"
Miss Hoffman lingered, however.
"Of course, if you apologize----"
"I do, Miss Hoffman. I beg your pardon most sincerely for anything Ihave ever said or done that could hurt you in any way."
"If you are sure you are sorry--if you take it all back and will neverdo such a thing again--perhaps I may forgive you."
"I won't--I am--I will!" said the abject and groveling wretch. Whichwas incoherent but pleasing. "I didn't mean anything the way you tookit; but I'm sorry for everything."
"Then I didn't beguile you to come? Or mask as a Friend in the hope thatyou would identify me?"
"No, no!"
Miss Ellinor pressed her advantage cruelly. "Nor take stock of each newmasker to see if he possibly wasn't the expected Mr. Bransford? Nor dragy
ou into the garden? Nor squeeze your arm?" Her hands went to her face,her lissome body shook. "Oh, Mr. Bransford!" she sobbed between herfingers. "How could you--how _could_ you say that?"
The clock chimed. A pealing voice beat out into the night: "Masks off!"A hundred voices swelled the cry; it was drowned in waves of laughter.It rose again tumultuously: "_Masks off! Masks off!_" Nearer camehateful voices, too, that cried: "_Ellinor! Ellinor! Where are you?_"
"I must go!" said Jeff. "They'll be looking for you. No; you didn't doany of those things. You couldn't do any of those things. Good-by!"
"_Ellinor! Ellinor Hoffman!! Where are you?_"
Miss Hoffman whipped off her mask. From the open window a shaft of lightfell on her face. It was flushed, sparkling, radiant. "Masks off!" shesaid. "Stupid!... Oh, you great goose! Of course I did!" She steppedback into the shadow.
No one, as the copybook says justly, may be always wise. Conversely, themost unwise of us blunders sometimes upon the right thing to do. With aglimmer of returning intelligence Mr. Bransford laid his noseguard onthe window-sill.
"_Sir!_" said Ellinor then. "How dare you?" Then she turned the othercheek. "Good-by!" she whispered, and fled away to the ballroom.
Mr. Bransford, in the shadows, scratched his head dubiously.
"Her Christian name was Ellinor," he muttered. "Ellinor! H'm--Ellinor!Very appropriate name.... Very!... And I don't know yet where shelives!"
He wandered disconsolately away to the garden wall, forgetting thediscarded noseguard.