When I was a young man I once made a foreign journey, betaking myself to
the royal court of X. on affairs of state. In those days politics would
take strange turns, not of unmixed delight, and so it happened that my
mission was prolonged well into the winter, and kept me at X. until the
carnival season. But at this I did not repine, for to pass a winter in
a beautiful climate and amid the fascinating society of a court seemed a
welcome change to my enthusiastic, pleasure-loving young soul.
The reigning sovereign had a predilection for masked balls,--a
traditionally favorite amusement at the palace, I was told--and
accordingly several fancy dress festivities were enacted on the royal
premises during the carnival. The first I was unable to participate in
because of an inflamed eye, and therefore awaited the second with all
the keener anticipation.
In the becoming costume of a Prussian officer in the army of Frederick
the Great, and with the agreeable sensation of being specially well
disguised beneath my mask and safe from recognition, I mingled in the
gay throng of the dancers and enjoyed to the full the charm of the
brilliant and delicious event. An exquisitely graceful little water-nix
had conquered my heart. The champagne was bubbling in my blood, and
in wild spirits I was pursuing the fleeing Undine into an adjacent
apartment.
Suddenly I stopped as though spellbound, and found myself staring into
a pair of dark eyes, black as night, which were rigidly fixed upon me.
Standing aloof, in a corner of the room, I saw a nun. Her long gray
garment reached to the ground, and lay about her very feet in folds like
a train. Her arms hung straight down, the hands being concealed in the
loose sleeves. White linen bands covered her head and chin, and rendered
even her mouth invisible, while her forehead and the upper part of her
face were protected by a black velvet mask. And the blackness of those
eyes that penetrated me was so intense that scarcely were any whites
discernible.
An indescribable emotion ran over me as I stood under the ban of an
evil power, as it were, returning the look of that strange figure. I had
forgotten Undine. Drawn by some invisible force, I approached the nun
with mechanical footstep.
“Why, fair mask,” I accosted her with a bold laugh, “are you alone?
Surely you know that for dancing and love two are needed!”
Briefly, like a Chinese idol, she nodded her head in assent; a thrill
seemed to pass over her wonderfully slender shape; yet she did not
budge.
I became more venturesome from a sudden feeling as of fire rushing
through my veins.
“You may be vowed to seclusion, beautiful bride of Heaven, but to-day
the convent walls have released you, to-day you are of the world and the
flesh, to-day you are mine!”
Thus I cried aloud, forgetting in my excitement that I was in a country
where my mother tongue was only spoken and understood at the German
legation.
In a moment it occurred to me: Did the mask know German?
To my astonishment, she gave an immediate sign of intelligence by
gliding, silently as a shadow, another step in my direction, and her
biasing eyes appeared to kindle with merriment. Had she a veil over her
eyes? It almost looked so and this extraordinary measure of precaution
challenged me the more strongly to overcome her reluctance to being
known.
“Do you understand me?” I asked.
She nodded in the same brief, jerky manner as before.
“Do you know me?”
Similarly she answered by negative motions of the head. I stepped up
close to her with the question:
“But will you not know me and love me? Come into my arms, and let us
dance!”
Then something happened that at the moment I found surprising and
extremely startling, yet which I took for a mere carnival freak,
while later on I could scarce review the occurrence with any degree of
clearness.
The nun threw her arms about me abruptly and almost desperately, and
whirled me into a frenzied dance. I felt no body between my arms, and
did not hear the rustle of her dress; I only saw those enigmatic
dark eyes, which glowed near, very near, my own. And in mad career,
regardless of the musical time or of the tune played, my curious partner
tore around the room with me faster and faster, and with ever increasing
fury. Her arms gripped me tighter and tighter and I was threatened
with complete loss of breath in the wild race. Of a sudden I received a
violent blow, resembling an electric shock, from each of her hands on
my shoulders, felt myself all at once liberated, and staggered faint
against a pyramid of plants. Boisterous laughter sounded on my ear; some
other masks had surrounded and seized me, exclaiming:
“Look at the fine gentleman! He is out of his mind, dancing about the
room like a madman, quite alone!”