How delightful
it was to be some one else! And how splendidly Adonis led! At each
turn where the waltz varied the figures he effected a wonderful
change of partners, and it usually happened just when he was saying
something most interesting to the young lady.
But this afforded a splendid chance for coquetry--a very pardonable
affectation under a mask.
The little nun was creeping around the platform. She seemed like a
dark spirit in the midst of such merrymaking, almost like a warning
of a fate to come.
"Now!" the Rosebud heard her partner whisper as the nun passed. And
the Rosebud had for a partner--Antonio,
"Who?" Psyche heard the nun ask of the same Antonio. "Who is it to
go to?"
Psyche wondered what it meant. With a quick move, at the signal for
a change, Antonio was whirling off with the nun, and Psyche was left
without a partner.
But a few moments later Antonio came back to her.
"I just wanted to see if I could make the little nun dance," he
whispered, "and I did--all the way off the platform, for she's
gone."
"She is standing there by the side of Adonis," replied Psyche
directly. "And she seems to be in the way."
"Soliciting alms," almost sneered Antonio. "That's her business, I
suppose.
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