Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1902-02-20
BETRAYED
By A MOLE
A Story of Masquerade Ball
and q Dinner Party.

| SdTTOll Il IcTt ud0 SOhG W ebC iChei
bal masque. 1t was all very wearisome
10 him. He had been to dozens of such
balls before, and he wondered now
what he had come for. 1t was not as it
had been when he was boy. 1t was
nothing but a nuisance, and yet he
staid wearied and Disguised, yawning
until the tears came in his eyes, wish
ing himself elsewhere and lingering
about in dreary isolation.
There came of a sudden a sigh, a
long, quivering sigh, almost a sob. Car
roll was startled, but he made no sign.
There was some one in the box, after
all. Without moving his head he flash
ed glance through the grating out Of
the corners of his eyes. There was
woman sitting there, quite close to
him. She must have moved from the
back Of the box since he had come, for
he was certain that she was not there
when he took his seat.
She evidently had not noticed him
and believed herself unobserved. In his
brief glance Carroll had seen that she
wore black domino and mask of the
plainest kind; that her hands were
clasped in her lap, and that she appear
ed to be looking at the dancers. They
could not see her, he thought.
He stole another look at her, and as
he did so she sighed again-a sigh of
WEAKNESS and pain. Then she moved
and, taking up a fan in her lap, began
to noiselessly fan herself. The flap of
her mask moved in the faint winnow-
ing air made by the fan, rose little,
then fell Suddenly, at a wider sweep
of the fan, the flap curved upward III
a deep wave, and Carroll saw Il portion
of a smooth pale cheek, the corner of
her mouth, and near it, toward the
chin, small brown mole.
Almost simultaneously she raised her
eyes and saw him looking at her
through the grating. She dropped the
fan and made a grasp at the edge Of
the mask Through the two Sits for
the eyes Carroll saw hers, and. though
he could not tell whether they were
light or dark, he saw that they were
full of terror. The thought flashed
through his mind, Il will know her
again" and he knew that she had
thought the same of him. The next
instant she had withdrawn into the
back Of the box. Carroll went home
wondering about her.
A few evenings later he went to
dinner at the house of fashionable
lady who was a relation of his. Just
before dinner she came to him and
said:
Carroll, | have a favor to ask of
you. My niece, Helen, little country
lass, is in town for the winter, to stay
with her brother, who is going to col
lege. She is under my wing and is
very young and bashful. | am going
to ask you TO take her in to dinner and
be kind to her. She has seen so little
of society. She was here moment
ago, but has run away again for some
thing or other. | will introduce you
to her when she comes back"
Carroll assured her that he would
be delighted. which had more truth
in 1t than such remarks usually have.
1t would be less trouble to talk to a
young miss like this than to a more
tried veteran, and if she couldn't talk
he could eat his dinner in peace and
let her preserve the silence so dear to
the debutante.
Presently, in the movement and well
bred shutting of a dinner cortege get
ting under way, a young girl was given
him to take as his partner and with
whom he brought up the rear of the
long procession. He hardly noticed
her. Bread ana butter was not in his
line. He felt her small hand put limp
~ on his arm, and he was dimly aware
that her dress was pink She said
nothing. In answer to his remark
about the oak panels in the hall she
assented family
She was evidently extremely raw.
Seated at table, Carroll, unfolding his
napkin, said he liked pink candle
shades and then began to take his
soup. When he had finished it. he
looked about the table, smiled at lady
opposite. said something to Il man far
Their down. Finally, absently brushing
his long mnstache with his napkin he
iooSed ut his companion. She was sit
ting with her hands in her lap, her
head dropped, her eyes staring mt the
centerpiece Her cheeks and chin were
smooth and pale, and near the corner
of her mouth toward the chin wds a
square piece of black court plaster.
Still smoothing back his mustache
with the napkin, Carroll locaed at the
small black square. He would have
given a years income II 1t would have
fallen on. He looked at the shape and
set Of her head, at the pose of her fold
ed hands. 1t was the same, yet how
could 1t be? He looked at her cheek
and chin and then, lowering his eyes.,
tried to recall the exact appearance OF
Abe cheek and chin be had seen under