"Oh, I know all that. There is no need to apologize, and I don't think
any the worse of you for it. Will you come to business, Mr. Ormiston?
I think I told you I wanted to go in. What may you want of me at this
dismal hour?"
"O madame, need you ask! Does not your own heart tell you?"
"I am not aware that it does! And to tell you the truth, Mr. Ormiston,
I don't know that I even have a heart! I am afraid I mast trouble you to
put it in words."
"Then, madame, I love you!"
"Is that all? If my memory serves me, you have told me that little fact
several times before. Is there anything else tormenting you, or may I go
in?"
Ormiston groaned out an oath between his teeth, and La Masque raised one
jeweled, snowy taper finger, reprovingly.
"Don't Mr. Ormiston--it's naughty, you know! May I go in?"
"Madame, you are enough to drive a man mad. Is the love I bear you
worthy of nothing but mockery!"
"No, Mr. Ormiston, it is not; that is, supposing you really love me,
which you don't."
"Madame!"
"Oh, you needn't flash and look indignant; it is quite true! Don't be
absurd, Mr. Ormiston. How is it possible for you to love one you have
never seen?"
"I have seen you. Do you think I am blind?" he demanded, indignantly.
"My face, I mean. I don't consider that you can see a person without
looking in her face. Now you have never looked in mine, and how do you
know I have any face at all?"
"Madame, you mock me."
"Not at all. How are you to know what is behind this mask?"
"I feel it, and that is better; and I love you all the same."
"Mr. Ormiston, how do you know but I am ugly."
"Madame, I do not believe you are; you are all too perfect not to have a
perfect face; and even were it otherwise, I still love you!"
She broke into a laugh--one of her low, short, deriding laughs.
"You do! O man, how wise thou art! I tell you, if I took off this mask,
the sight would curdle the very blood in your veins with horror--would
freeze the lifeblood in your heart. I tell you!" she passionately cried,
"there are sights too horrible for human beings to look on and live, and
this--this is one of them!"
He started back, and stared at her aghast.
"You think me mad," she said, in a less fierce tone, "but I am not; and
I repeat it, Mr. Ormiston, the sight of what this mask conceals would
blast you. Go now, for Heaven's sake, and leave me in peace, to drag out
the rest of my miserable life; and if ever you think of me, let it be to
pray that it might speedily end. You have forced me to say this: so now
be content. Be merciful, and go!"