Best Horror Novels

Chapter 11 The Story

Chapter 11

The Story"With all my heart," said the General, with an effort; and after

a short pause in which to arrange his subject, he commenced one of

the strangest narratives I ever heard.

"My dear child was looking forward with great pleasure to the

visit you had been so good as to arrange for her to your charming

daughter." Here he made me a gallant but melancholy bow. "In the

meantime we had an invitation to my old friend the Count Carlsfeld,

whose schloss is about six leagues to the other side of Karnstein.

It was to attend the series of fetes which, you remember, were

given by him in honor of his illustrious visitor, the Grand Duke

Charles."

"Yes; and very splendid, I believe, they were," said my

father.

"Princely! But then his hospitalities are quite regal. He has

Aladdin's lamp. The night from which my sorrow dates was devoted to

a magnificent masquerade. The grounds were thrown open, the trees

hung with colored lamps. There was such a display of fireworks as

Paris itself had never witnessed. And such music—music, you know,

is my weakness—such ravishing music! The finest instrumental band,

perhaps, in the world, and the finest singers who could be

collected from all the great operas in Europe. As you wandered

through these fantastically illuminated grounds, the moon-lighted

chateau throwing a rosy light from its long rows of windows, you

would suddenly hear these ravishing voices stealing from the

silence of some grove, or rising from boats upon the lake. I felt

myself, as I looked and listened, carried back into the romance and

poetry of my early youth.

"When the fireworks were ended, and the ball beginning, we

returned to the noble suite of rooms that were thrown open to the

dancers. A masked ball, you know, is a beautiful sight; but so

brilliant a spectacle of the kind I never saw before.

"It was a very aristocratic assembly. I was myself almost the

only 'nobody' present.

"My dear child was looking quite beautiful. She wore no mask.

Her excitement and delight added an unspeakable charm to her

features, always lovely. I remarked a young lady, dressed

magnificently, but wearing a mask, who appeared to me to be

observing my ward with extraordinary interest. I had seen her,

earlier in the evening, in the great hall, and again, for a few

minutes, walking near us, on the terrace under the castle windows,

similarly employed. A lady, also masked, richly and gravely

dressed, and with a stately air, like a person of rank, accompanied

her as a chaperon.

"Had the young lady not worn a mask, I could, of course, have

been much more certain upon the question whether she was really

watching my poor darling.

"I am now well assured that she was.

"We were now in one of the salons. My poor dear child had been

dancing, and was resting a little in one of the chairs near the

door; I was standing near. The two ladies I have mentioned had

approached and the younger took the chair next my ward; while her

companion stood beside me, and for a little time addressed herself,

in a low tone, to her charge.

"Availing herself of the privilege of her mask, she turned to

me, and in the tone of an old friend, and calling me by my name,

opened a conversation with me, which piqued my curiosity a good

deal. She referred to many scenes where she had met me—at Court,

and at distinguished houses. She alluded to little incidents which

I had long ceased to think of, but which, I found, had only lain in

abeyance in my memory, for they instantly started into life at her

touch.

"I became more and more curious to ascertain who she was, every

moment. She parried my attempts to discover very adroitly and

pleasantly. The knowledge she showed of many passages in my life

seemed to me all but unaccountable; and she appeared to take a not

unnatural pleasure in foiling my curiosity, and in seeing me

flounder in my eager perplexity, from one conjecture to

another.

"In the meantime the young lady, whom her mother called by the

odd name of Millarca, when she once or twice addressed her, had,

with the same ease and grace, got into conversation with my

ward.

"She introduced herself by saying that her mother was a very old

acquaintance of mine. She spoke of the agreeable audacity which a

mask rendered practicable; she talked like a friend; she admired

her dress, and insinuated very prettily her admiration of her

beauty. She amused her with laughing criticisms upon the people who

crowded the ballroom, and laughed at my poor child's fun. She was

very witty and lively when she pleased, and after a time they had

grown very good friends, and the young stranger lowered her mask,

displaying a remarkably beautiful face. I had never seen it before,

neither had my dear child. But though it was new to us, the

features were so engaging, as well as lovely, that it was

impossible not to feel the attraction powerfully. My poor girl did

so. I never saw anyone more taken with another at first sight,

unless, indeed, it was the stranger herself, who seemed quite to

have lost her heart to her.

"In the meantime, availing myself of the license of a

masquerade, I put not a few questions to the elder lady.

"'You have puzzled me utterly,' I said, laughing. 'Is that not

enough? Won't you, now, consent to stand on equal terms, and do me

the kindness to remove your mask?'

"'Can any request be more unreasonable?' she replied. 'Ask a

lady to yield an advantage! Beside, how do you know you should

recognize me? Years make changes.'

"'As you see,' I said, with a bow, and, I suppose, a rather

melancholy little laugh.

"'As philosophers tell us,' she said; 'and how do you know that

a sight of my face would help you?'

"'I should take chance for that,' I answered. 'It is vain trying

to make yourself out an old woman; your figure betrays you.'

"'Years, nevertheless, have passed since I saw you, rather since

you saw me, for that is what I am considering. Millarca, there, is

my daughter; I cannot then be young, even in the opinion of people

whom time has taught to be indulgent, and I may not like to be

compared with what you remember me. You have no mask to remove. You

can offer me nothing in exchange.'

"'My petition is to your pity, to remove it.'

"'And mine to yours, to let it stay where it is,' she

replied.

"'Well, then, at least you will tell me whether you are French

or German; you speak both languages so perfectly.'

"'I don't think I shall tell you that, General; you intend a

surprise, and are meditating the particular point of attack.'

"'At all events, you won't deny this,' I said, 'that being

honored by your permission to converse, I ought to know how to

address you. Shall I say Madame la Comtesse?'

"She laughed, and she would, no doubt, have met me with another

evasion—if, indeed, I can treat any occurrence in an interview

every circumstance of which was prearranged, as I now believe, with

the profoundest cunning, as liable to be modified by accident.

"'As to that,' she began; but she was interrupted, almost as she

opened her lips, by a gentleman, dressed in black, who looked

particularly elegant and distinguished, with this drawback, that

his face was the most deadly pale I ever saw, except in death. He

was in no masquerade—in the plain evening dress of a gentleman; and

he said, without a smile, but with a courtly and unusually low

bow:—

"'Will Madame la Comtesse permit me to say a very few words

which may interest her?'

"The lady turned quickly to him, and touched her lip in token of

silence; she then said to me, 'Keep my place for me, General; I

shall return when I have said a few words.'

"And with this injunction, playfully given, she walked a little

aside with the gentleman in black, and talked for some minutes,

apparently very earnestly. They then walked away slowly together in

the crowd, and I lost them for some minutes.

"I spent the interval in cudgeling my brains for a conjecture as

to the identity of the lady who seemed to remember me so kindly,

and I was thinking of turning about and joining in the conversation

between my pretty ward and the Countess's daughter, and trying

whether, by the time she returned, I might not have a surprise in

store for her, by having her name, title, chateau, and estates at

my fingers' ends. But at this moment she returned, accompanied by

the pale man in black, who said:

"'I shall return and inform Madame la Comtesse when her carriage

is at the door.'

"He withdrew with a bow."