Evening star., 1924-05-19

HE bal maSQue was fixed for
three days later, and those
three days were, for Elise,
packed with tremendous ex-
citement. She told Marthe she was
going to the ball. and arranged for
an old woman in a room downstairs
to stay with Marthe for that night.
But she largely suppressed kendrick
in her account of it all, for somehow
she conceived that Marthe might not
approve of her going off with a man
of whom. after all, she knew very
little
1t was Marthe who told Lapierre,
but he said nothing to Elise about it.
Subtly Lapierre was changing, be-
coming quiet. more self-contained,
like a man with a load of trouble set
about his shoulders.
Kendrick came to the dressing room
each night and talked intimately with
Elise about what they would do, all
barriers of restraint now broken
down.
Lolette-and Elise found this omi-
nous-was more kind than ever:
Elise-always imaginative-pictur
lance-point dipped in honey, in this
attitude of the dancers. She talked
to Elise of the things she should
wear at the ball, and, finding that
she was contemplating an attempt to
manufacture a fancy dress after the
style of the old peasant costumes in
her native Normandy, said: "Oh, but
there is no need for that. Now, see,
l have a dress. so chic, which have
never worn. We are of a size, we
two. The dress was for Nice-when
I sprained my ankle. You will re-
member perhaps. No? Well, it was
so. 1 will lend it you. No; No! No
protests, please. ! am delighted to
help. / will have the dress brought"
II came the night before the masque,
flimsy creation OF yellow, not as
daring as Lolette's usual costumes-a
thing for which Elise was thankful
bizarre in design. and intended to
represent the voluptuous orient. Elise
tried it on. and it fitted admirably.
VOLTA" said Lolette, surveying her;
right Why, if Brunei saw You like
that he would want you to go on in
stead of hiding yourself in this dress
ing room"
She was watching Elise slyfy as she
spoke. and saw the quick flush which
rose involuntarily to Elise's checks.
So she was right. This girl felt the
lure of the music and the light. 1t
was well.
At last the great light came.
Brunei lived in large house be-
tween the Champs Eiysees and the
Rue du Faubourg st. Honore, which
a little over a century previous had
been occupied by a nobleman of the
old regime, and miraculously had es-
capped destruction and DETACHMENT
during the blood-stained era of the
revolution. Like all such houses of
that period, its interior decorations
were expensive and ornate, while its
grounds were beautiful beyond de-
scription, and large.
To Elise, visiting and seeing them
for the first time on this night, they
were like vision of that fairyland
she had sometimes attempted to paint
for Marthe.
Terrace on terrace of smooth. car
retlike grassland. bread sweeps of
marble steps, fantastiCally carved
hedgerows, tall. graceful poplars,
fountains and flowers, with over all
lights, myriads of lights, lights of all
colors, hidden and showing; lights in
the trees, strung across the lawns, in
the waters of the fountains, lights
everywhere, lifting a rainbow radi-
ance to the calm placidity of the star
Spangled heavens, where thin sickle
of wan moon sailed high on sea OF
cobalt.
Beneath the lights swayed a great
crowd of people. and the brilliance
and coloring Of their costumes chal-
lenged the brilliance of the lamps.
There were kings and queens, trouba-
dours, pierretteS, CleopatraS, ancient
Greeks, fantastic creatures dressed to
represent some popular fancy of the
monent-a moving mass of f3rlng
color which seemed not SO much a
concourSe of separate units as Il no.
mogeneous whole. blending indeti-
nltely with the scheme of the garden.
Somewhere hidden, an orchestra
was playing a Hitting fox trot and the
strains of 1T reached out across the
garden, quickened with suggestion
of abandon.
Brunei was there, the one person of
them all in conventional evening
garb, and he greeted Lolette, Mordac
and Kendrick heartily, inclining his
head toward Elise and eyeing her
with some question. Yeti was
open house this night. and SO even
dresser was welcome, provided there
was somebody to escort her.
Elise danced with Kendrick, and
found a thrill in it which she had
never found in the old dances back at
the convent. To have his arm about
her, to be so close to him, to look
up into his eyes, smiling down upon
her, to know the intimacy of the
svelte movement made magic by the
music and the lights and hte glamour.
of it all, lifted her high on wave of
ina ginative emotionalism.
She felt she could have danced for
all eternity with him: have danced
on and on until the end of the world.
or the morrow, of DR.. Lapierre, of